How to Cut Your AI Token Usage by 50% (Same Quality)

#ai #llm #api #programming

Your AI bill is high because you're burning tokens on bad prompts. 🔥

3 tricks that actually work:

1. Set a output token limit

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek-v4-pro",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this"}],
    max_tokens=100  # ← Limit output length
)

Saves ~40% on long-form outputs.

2. Use system prompts wisely

# ❌ Wastes tokens on every request
messages = [
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant..."},
    {"role": "user", "content": user_input}
]

# ✅ Keep it short
messages = [
    {"role": "system", "content": "Be concise."},
    {"role": "user", "content": user_input}
]

Saves ~20% on system prompt overhead.

3. Switch models per task