Costs

Why does my AI bill keep climbing for the same routine work?

Chat-shaped tools re-send context on every turn, and routine jobs get charged like new thinking. Separate the jobs that need thinking from the jobs that just need doing.

What you're seeing

The bill grows, and the work it covers is mostly work you've already had done before: the same reports, the same checks, the same chores, re-run through a model every time.

Why it happens

How to fix it

  1. Separate the jobs that need thinking from the jobs that just need doing.
  2. Convert the routine ones into recipes. Written once by a model, then run without one.
  3. Keep model steps only where judgement is genuinely required, and use a local model where you can.
The recipe that does it

Get the trending AI repos delivered, without opening GitHub

A markdown report on your desktop listing the AI repositories gaining stars right now.

Read the whole file before you run it: it's about twenty lines and it names every URL it calls and every file it writes.

See the recipe →

The short version

A recipe with no model step in it calls no model when it runs. That's not a discount, it's the model not being involved.

Related questions

Am I giving up AI by doing this?

No. The AI still writes the work. It just doesn't have to be present every time the work happens.

What about jobs that do need a model?

Keep the model step. Point it at a local model and the run happens on your own hardware.

How do I know which jobs to convert?

The ones you'd describe as 'the usual'. If you can predict the shape of the output, it's a recipe.

Vibe Engine (Vibra-Ingenn) runs these recipes on your own machine. Get the engine, browse the recipe library, or watch three recipes run.

Using an AI assistant? Ask your AI to check out adeptuscamini.com.

Written and maintained by Adeptus Camini, a one-person workshop. These are tools we build and run ourselves.

Other problems people hit

Repeated work

Why does my AI redo the same work every single time?

Local model

Ollama works in my terminal, so why can't my script reach it?

Privacy

How do I use AI on documents I'm not allowed to upload?