METHODOLOGY DEEP-DIVE · VERIFIED 15 JUL 2026

Batch API and prompt caching: the two discounts everyone skips

Every price on this site — the calculator, the full table, every worked example in our use-case guides — is the standard, pay-as-you-go list rate. We say this explicitly and often, because two features available from every major provider we track can meaningfully lower a real production bill below those numbers, and most people never turn them on.

Batch processing: roughly 50% off, if you can wait

Every major provider offers a batch API: submit a large set of requests together, get results back within a defined turnaround window — typically same-day or next-day rather than instantly — at roughly half the standard price. The trade-off is exactly what it sounds like: no real-time response. This is the single biggest lever available for any workload that doesn't need an immediate answer.

Look back at our high-volume classification worked example: a $28.50/month workload on the cheapest tier drops to roughly $14/month with batch pricing alone, before you've changed a single model choice. For any workload that's currently synchronous purely out of habit rather than genuine need, this is worth checking before anything else.

Prompt caching: roughly 90% off the repeated portion

Prompt caching targets a different pattern: when the same block of text — a system prompt, a set of instructions, a reference document, a codebase — gets sent on every call, with only a small portion actually changing between requests. Providers can cache that repeated portion and charge roughly 90% less for it on cache hits, while the changing portion is billed at the normal rate.

This is precisely why our coding assistants guide calls caching a bigger lever than model choice — a coding assistant's input is dominated by the same codebase context repeated call after call, which is exactly the shape caching is built for.

Can you use both at once?

Where a provider's API supports it, yes — batch and caching address different parts of the cost structure (turnaround time versus repeated content) and generally aren't mutually exclusive. A large, non-urgent job with a heavily repeated system prompt is the best-case scenario for stacking both discounts. Check your specific provider's current documentation for exact interaction rules, since implementation details vary and change.

The honest reason we don't bake this into every number on the site

Batch turnaround windows and cache hit rates vary by provider and by how consistently your actual traffic repeats the same content — a number we can't know without seeing your specific workload. Publishing a single "with discounts" figure would imply a precision we don't actually have. The list prices we show are the honest baseline; these two levers are what you check next, specific to your own usage pattern.

General availability and approximate discount levels verified across major providers' documentation, 15 July 2026. Exact terms, turnaround windows, and cache TTLs vary by provider — check current documentation before committing a production workload to either.