Cost Optimization

How RelayPlane saves you money without sacrificing quality.

The Problem

AI coding agents send everything to expensive models. A simple "list files in this directory" costs the same as "architect a distributed system." Most tasks don't need Opus-level reasoning.

Without RelayPlane

Every request → Opus ($15/MTok)
Tool calls → Opus
Simple questions → Opus
~$100-300/month typical

With RelayPlane

All requests → Haiku ($0.25/MTok)
60x cheaper per token
Same API, same tools
~$5-20/month typical

How Routing Works

By default, RelayPlane routes all requests to Haiku for maximum cost savings. The proxy tracks task types to help you understand your usage patterns:

Task Type	Default Model	Cost
tool_use	Haiku	$0.25/MTok
quick_task	Haiku	$0.25/MTok
code_review	Haiku	$0.25/MTok
generation	Haiku	$0.25/MTok
long_context	Haiku	$0.25/MTok
general	Haiku	$0.25/MTok

Why Haiku for everything? Most agent tasks (tool calls, file reads, simple edits) don't need Opus-level reasoning. The proxy optimizes for cost by default. Quality routing with model escalation is coming in a future release.

Typical Results

40-60%

Cost Reduction

~70%

Tasks Routed Down

0ms

Added Latency

View Your Savings

1relayplane-proxy stats

Example output:

1📊 Usage Statistics
2═══════════════════
3
4  Total requests: 1,247
5  Total cost:     $42.18
6  Success rate:   95.3%
7
8  By Model:
9    claude-3-5-haiku: 847 requests, $8.12
10    claude-sonnet-4:  312 requests, $24.06
11    claude-opus-4:     88 requests, $10.00
12
13  By Task Type:
14    tool_use:    523 requests, $5.00
15    quick_task:  324 requests, $3.12
16    code_review: 248 requests, $24.06
17    generation:  152 requests, $10.00

No Quality Loss: Complex tasks still go to Opus. You only save money on tasks that don't need premium reasoning.

Real-World Example

A typical OpenClaw coding session might look like:

50 tool calls (read file, list dir, search) → Haiku
15 code reviews/edits → Sonnet
3 architecture decisions → Opus

Without RelayPlane: All 68 requests to Opus = ~$15
With RelayPlane: Mixed routing = ~$6