Seat economics
Who has access, who uses it, which plan or feature is required, and whether overlapping tools can be consolidated.
AI & API spend
AI cost starts with the capability you need, then the tokens behind it.
AI spend can be seat-based, usage-based, committed, decentralized, or hidden in another workflow. Map each purchase to the business outcome it should deliver.
Consumption economics
Provider, model, tokens, API calls, commitments, budgets, forecast, attribution, and cost volatility.
Value economics
What task improves, what quality threshold applies, and whether human review or maintenance changes the total cost.
Common decisions
AI spend can end with Keep, Cut, Renegotiate, or Replace.
- Keep: the tool or model is required and the economics are sound.
- Cut: remove unused seats, duplicate subscriptions, uncontrolled keys, or obsolete commitments.
- Renegotiate: improve plan, unit price, commitment, overage, or renewal terms.
- Replace: move to an existing capability, lower-cost model, smaller tool, or workflow only after the full risk and net-cost gate.
Illustrative replacement screen
A lower model price can still create a higher operating cost.
Compare current provider cost with replacement API usage, hosting, monitoring, human review, migration, failure cost, and support ownership. If those inputs are not available, the answer is Pilot or Keep, not a confident Replace.
Current annual cost$100K
Replacement operating cost$15K
Switching cost$20K
Year-1 net savings$65K
Human review / supportNamed owner
RiskGate required
Illustrative figures. See the Replacement Economics Gate.
Renewal packaging
Credits on a renewal quote are a contract decision first.
This page models seats, tokens, commitments, and value. When metered AI credits arrive as a renewal add-on, cap, refuse, or split the line before you rebuild the forecast. Use the AI tax at SaaS renewals playbook for that commercial move. When the live question is the size of an annual minimum commitment, unused-credit rollover, or breakage, use the AI SaaS minimum commitments playbook instead of stretching this page into a commit-line negotiation.
Make AI spend accountable.
Start by mapping subscriptions, providers, commitments, and the jobs they perform.