October 10, 2026
7 min read
Opinion
The cost of AI is the new cloud bill nobody budgets
It starts at free, then the per-token meter runs while you sleep through a forgotten loop.
The cost of AI is the new cloud bill nobody budgets. It starts at free, then the per-token meter runs while you sleep through a forgotten loop. I put a hard cap on everything after one scary invoice.
I'm not claiming this is true for everyone. It's true for me, and the version I'd tell a friend is shorter than the marketing version.
The pushback I get is always the same, and it's usually right at the edges, not the center. The center holds: the boring practice beats the clever one most days.
If you take one thing from this, let it be the unglamorous part. The flashy bit is what gets demos; the plain bit is what gets used.