What are you building with AI?
Pick a workload. See exactly what each model tier costs. Find the sweet spot between quality and price — before you pay another month at the wrong tier.
Nine workloads, honest benchmarks
Each card links to a cost-by-tier breakdown. The savings lines reflect real production data — not marketing benchmarks.
Content Creation
Up to 85% cost reduction possible
Code Generation
Up to 60% cost reduction possible
Customer Support
Up to 90% cost reduction possible
Medical & Scientific
Use premium tier for safety-critical tasks
Data Extraction
Up to 97% cost reduction possible
Forecasting
Up to 70% cost reduction possible
Security Analysis
Tier by risk level — not by default
Report Generation
Up to 85% cost reduction possible
Virtual Assistant
Up to 80% cost reduction possible
What Scruuge looks at for each workload
Content Creation
Blog posts, marketing copy, social content — a lighter model tier handles the vast majority at a fraction of the cost.
Up to 85% cost reduction possible
Code Generation
Auto-complete, refactoring, test writing. Tier matters less than prompt discipline and context window management.
Up to 60% cost reduction possible
Customer Support
High-volume, repetitive queries are the single best candidate for model downtier. Most support bots are running on premium iron by default.
Up to 90% cost reduction possible
Medical & Scientific
Where accuracy and nuance are non-negotiable. The advisor-first principle: don't downtier where the cost of error exceeds the savings.
Use premium tier for safety-critical tasks
Data Extraction
Structured extraction from docs, receipts, forms. This workload barely needs a capable model — it needs a well-engineered prompt.
Up to 97% cost reduction possible
Forecasting
Demand planning, financial projection, trend analysis. The insight comes from your data; the model just needs to reason over it cleanly.
Up to 70% cost reduction possible
Security Analysis
Threat modeling and code audits warrant premium. Routine log triage and alert summarization do not. The distinction is worth quantifying.
Tier by risk level — not by default
Report Generation
Automated summaries, status updates, dashboards-to-prose. Template-heavy, high-volume, structurally repetitive — ideal for a lighter tier.
Up to 85% cost reduction possible
Virtual Assistant
Scheduling, Q&A, research tasks. The assistant persona convinces teams they need the top model. They usually don't.
Up to 80% cost reduction possible
How Scruuge thinks about cost
The frugal advisor's first principles — applied to every workload we cover.
Premium tier is a choice, not a default
Most teams reach for top-tier models because it feels safer. Scruuge's job is to show you, workload by workload, when that instinct costs you and when it's warranted.
The savings are real — and compounding
A 60% reduction on a $1,000/month workload is $7,200/year. At scale, even a 20% reduction across five workloads changes what you can build.
We profit from your clarity, not your confusion
Ebenezer's Pledge — Scruuge never earns from routing you to more expensive tools. The calculator, the use-case guides, and the pack are all designed to reduce your bill.
Ready to see your actual numbers?
Enter your spend, pick your workload, and Scruuge tells you exactly what tier you should be on. Free, no sign-up, two minutes.