Your AI bill is 30–40 % too high. We show you where.
AI CostGuard analyzes your spend on Claude, GPT, Gemini & Co., uncovers hidden costs and cuts them — GDPR-compliant, no vendor lock-in. You pay out of what you save.
The problem
You pay for AI — but don't know exactly what for
The provider invoice shows a lump sum, not details. Three questions stay open — and that is where your money is.
Opaque costs
The invoice shows one amount, not cost per team, feature or customer. You can only manage what you can see.
Unclear ROI
High spend, but what business value stands against it? Without attribution it stays a gut feeling.
Expensive over-models
Frontier models for tasks a cheaper or open model handles just as well. Every call costs more than it needs to.
Cost calculator
What does your AI really cost?
No expertise needed. Pick your use case, the model and your volume — the calculator turns tokens, minutes and credits into euros and shows the hidden costs that no invoice lists.
The gap between list price and real cost is exactly what an audit recovers.
Check my savings potentialEstimate based on public model prices (approx. values in EUR). Your actual overhead is measured in the audit.
How it works
From invoice to savings plan in two weeks
Connect
You export your usage data or we place our proxy in front — read-only, in your environment. No code change needed.
Analyze
We attribute cost per workload, find over-models, context bloat and zombie spend — and quality-check every saving.
Report
You get a solid report: current costs, prioritized savings, annual projection. Implementation optional, on a success basis.
Pricing
Transparent — and success-based where it counts
The calculator is free. The audit shows you where you overpay, at a fixed price. The optimization recovers the savings for real — you pay out of what you save.
Calculator
- Cost per use case
- List price vs. real
- All providers
Spend audit
- Cost attribution per team/feature
- Savings, prioritized
- Premium report (PDF)
Optimization
- Everything in Spend audit
- Model routing & implementation
- 20% of yearly savings
- You carry no risk
Managed
- Monthly cost report
- Anomaly alerts
- Continuous optimization
Why AI CostGuard
Built for the European mid-market
GDPR by design
Self-hosted in your environment, EU hosting. Your prompts never leave your house.
Success-based
For optimization you pay a share of the real saving — no saving, no invoice.
No lock-in
Vendor-neutral. We also route to open or EU models where the quality holds up.
FAQ
What companies ask about AI costs
How can I cut my AI costs?
The biggest levers are: the right model per task (replacing an expensive frontier model where a cheaper one is just as good), trimming bloated system prompts and context, caching repeated requests, and switching off "zombie" spend. AI CostGuard measures your real usage, attributes the costs and uncovers exactly these savings — typically 30–40%.
What does an AI cost audit cost?
The Spend audit is a fixed price of €1,900: in about two weeks you get full cost transparency per team and use case plus a prioritized savings plan as a premium report. The online calculator is free. The subsequent implementation (optimization) is billed on success — 20% of the yearly saving.
Is AI CostGuard GDPR-compliant?
Yes. The analysis runs in your environment or on servers in the EU, no prompts are shared with third parties, and we sign a data processing agreement (DPA) with you. The cost calculator on this site runs entirely locally in your browser.
Which AI providers are supported?
All the common ones: OpenAI (GPT), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini) as well as Azure OpenAI and open models. AI CostGuard is vendor-neutral — we also recommend switching to cheaper or EU-hosted models where the quality holds up.
How do I know a cheaper model is good enough?
We never recommend a model switch without a quality check. In an eval we run your real prompts through the current and the cheaper model and compare the results. Only switches that pass this check are implemented — so quality is preserved.
How fast will I see savings?
You see the first savings potential in the audit after two weeks. In the optimization the changes are implemented and the real saving is measured over a few weeks of real traffic — you are only billed on the saving actually achieved.
Who is behind this
Not an anonymous tool — a real contact
Cost analysis means access to sensitive data. So you know exactly who you work with.
Franz Bauer
For over 15 years I have led large IT transformation programs with multi-million budgets — in highly regulated corporate environments, with clear governance and measurable delivery. As a TÜV-certified data protection officer and graduate of the Oxford AI Programme, I combine data-protection expertise with real AI understanding — I build generative AI hands-on today. I bring that same structure to your AI costs: transparent, verified, vendor-neutral. And you talk directly to me — not to a ticket system.
Let's find your hidden AI costs.
Free first call, no obligation. We estimate your savings potential — before you pay a cent.