Your budget model keeps matching the flagship on real tasks

I default to the biggest model out of habit, without ever checking whether a cheaper one sitting right next to it would honestly do the job just as well.

Intermediate to advancedRead 6 minDoing: about two hours8 steps

▶ Start

What you'll have at the end

A scored side-by-side run of one real task on a cheap model and a flagship model, with a winner picked

Before you start

You need

A task you already send to your flagship model on a repeat basis, plus API or console access to at least one smaller, cheaper model from that same vendor's lineup.

Not covered

Wiring an automatic router that sends different requests to different models in production; this only proves whether the cheap model can do this one task on its own.

Leans on

8 steps

Where to go next

Route your easy requests to a cheaper model

go there once you've proven the cheap model handles a task on its own, to wire the automatic switch that sends matching requests there without a person choosing each time

Checked 15 Aug 2026

Part of the Large Language Models (LLMs) cookbook