Hello DEV! 👋
Like many of you, I’ve been migrating my agents from OpenAI to models like DeepSeek-V3.2 to save on costs. On paper, it’s a 10x saving. In production, it’s a different story. I kept hitting what I now call the 'Retry Tax'. If a model is cheaper but requires 3 retries to get the logic right, are you actually saving money? To solve my own headache, I built a simple AI Cost & Retry Simulator.
What it does:
Compares GPT-5.2 vs DeepSeek V3.2 (using March 5th live rates).
Factors in Context Caching (the 90% discount).
Includes a Standard vs Batch Mode toggle.
I built this with vanilla JS to keep it fast. It’s been a life-saver for my margin planning this month.
Check it out here: https://bytecalculators.com/deepseek-ai-token-cost-calculator
I'd love to hear how you guys are calculating your "break-even" point. Is a 3x retry multiplier too optimistic for complex reasoning? Let's discuss!
Top comments (1)
I'm currently working on adding Claude 4.6 Sonnet to the comparison logic. Do you feel the 'Retry Tax' is higher or lower on Anthropic's models compared to GPT-5.2?"