Cutting AI Costs with Local LLM: A Hybrid Approach

Spending over $300 in Anthropic usage credits since the start of the year has been a harsh reality for many users, including myself. The main culprit behind this hefty bill is my tendency to opt for the most powerful flagship model available for every project, without considering whether it’s truly necessary. This approach not only burned through my allowance at an alarming rate but also resulted in frustrating downtime when I hit usage limits.