Cost Optimizer for AI API Calls

A middleware service that automatically routes API calls to cheaper LLM providers (DeepSeek vs OpenAI) while maintaining output quality. Developers integrate one line of code and save 50-70% on API costs.

LLM API costs have become a genuine line-item problem for production apps in 2024-2025, especially as DeepSeek's aggressive pricing forced the entire market to confront the cost-quality tradeoff directly — developers are actively looking for ways to exploit these pricing gaps without rewriting their integrations. The closest incumbent is LiteLLM, which already does provider routing and has significant open-source traction, so the real question is whether a paid middleware layer can differentiate on automatic quality benchmarking and dynamic switching rather than just static routing. The $3k-15k/mo revenue band is plausible but tight — this targets cost-conscious developers who are, by definition, optimizing spend, which creates friction around charging for a savings tool and likely pushes toward percentage-of-savings pricing rather than flat subscription. The biggest risk is commoditization: LiteLLM goes freemium with cloud hosting, or OpenAI and Anthropic introduce their own cost-tier routing, and the entire value proposition evaporates before meaningful customer lock-in is achieved.