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Use-case cost estimate

How Much Does an AI SaaS Product Cost to Run?

AI SaaS unit economics depend on model cost per request, active usage, subscription price, and the gross-margin target. Heavy-user distributions matter more than signups.

Default workload assumptions

These values make the example reproducible. They are planning assumptions, not measured usage from your application.

Input tokens per request
1,000
Output tokens per request
300
Requests per active user per day
20
Active paying users
500
Subscription price
$29 per month
Gross-margin target
75%

Calculator-style cost example

Estimate
Modeled API usage
$290.40330,000 buffered requests · 98.0% model-only gross margin on $14,500 revenue

Estimated monthly cost

$290.40

Estimated yearly cost

$3,484.80

GPT-4.1 mini

Last verified Jun 21, 2026 · OpenAI model pricing

Verified
  • The displayed margin excludes hosting, support, payment fees, and other variable costs.

Formula

gross margin = (monthly revenue − estimated monthly API cost) ÷ monthly revenue

Main cost drivers

  • Requests per active user and power-user tail
  • Input and output tokens per request
  • Free-trial and internal usage
  • Non-model infrastructure and support

Ways to reduce cost

  • Set transparent plan credits or usage limits
  • Route simple tasks to evaluated lower-cost models
  • Track cost per paying account by cohort
  • Reserve margin for retries and provider changes

Frequently asked questions

Does the margin include salaries and hosting?

No. This example isolates subscription revenue and modeled API cost. Add all other variable costs before using it as a business margin.

Why use active users per day?

API spend follows actual usage. Paid seats that do not use the feature generate revenue but little inference cost.

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Related glossary terms

Input tokens

Input tokens are the tokenized units sent to a model, including instructions, user content, conversation history, retrieved context, and tool definitions.

Open

Requests per day

Requests per day is the number of billable API calls made during a day. TokenMath commonly derives it from requests per active user multiplied by active users.

Open

Cost per request

Cost per request is the sum of all billable usage generated by one API call, commonly input token cost plus output token cost for a text model.

Open