Embedding AI Into Your App: What You Need to Know About APIs and Costs

AI APIs aren’t like your usual “plug it in and it just works” kind of setup. They’re a bit weirder. Same input, slightly different output each time. That unpredictability? It’s what makes them powerful — but it also means you’ve got to build around that.

In most cases, you’re sending a JSON request to a REST API — think: "here’s the prompt, here are the settings" — and getting a response back with some shiny new content. Some tools even stream results in real time, which is great if you're building live chat features or anything where speed matters.

Now, a few key things to wrap your head around:

• Tokens: This is how usage is measured. One token is basically a word or chunk of a word. Both the question you ask and the answer you get are counted.
• Context windows: How much info the AI can “remember” in one go. Too much text? It forgets the beginning.
• Rate limits: How many calls you’re allowed to make per minute or hour.

Cost Structure and Management

AI isn't free — and depending on the model, it can add up fast.

You’re paying by the token, so longer prompts and detailed answers = more cost. GPT-4? Pricier than GPT-3.5. Same with models from Anthropic and others.

But here’s a smart move: cache your responses. If people keep asking the same thing, don’t pay to generate the answer every time. Just reuse the old one and save yourself the token fee.