Inventory your prompts
List repeated workflows: email, reports, code, classification, document analysis, support or research. Track frequency, approximate tokens, model used and expected result.
Quick guide
The base map for spending less on AI
A simple way to decide before sending context to a paid model.
Move mechanical work local
Local AI usually fits classification, field extraction, draft summaries, text cleaning, variants and context preparation. If a task tolerates manual adjustment, it probably does not need the most expensive model.
Reserve paid AI for quality
Use paid AI where mistakes matter: complex reasoning, ambiguous decisions, final writing, architecture, strategy, critical review or tasks with little room for correction.
Templates, cache and short memory
Save proven prompts, cache repeated results and avoid resending entire documents. The question is not only which model to use, but how much context it truly needs.