LLM API Cost Guides

Working notes on estimating and budgeting LLM API spend, built on the same verified pricing data as the table.

GuideWhat it covers
How to estimate LLM API costs The cost formula plus the four corrections that make budget estimates real: tokenizer differences, invisible tokens, caching, deprecations.
Sonnet 5 price increase (Sept 1, 2026) Claude Sonnet 5 introductory pricing ends Aug 31, 2026 — what +50% does to a real workload, and your options.