At 20 requests/user/day (totaling 300,000 queries/mo), running Content generation on Text Embedding 004 costs $4.80 / month ($0.0096 / user / mo).
Content generation for a 500 active users (early growth) audience means 10,000 requests per day on average, each carrying 800 input and 1,200 output tokens at a 30% cacheable share — so the effective per-request cost on Text Embedding 004 is $0.000016, of which $0.00/mo comes back from prompt caching. Per active user that's $0.0096/mo — the number to hold against your pricing tier and gross margin. Charging at least $0.048/user/mo keeps gross margin at or above 80%.
Quick answer
For 500 Active Users, Content generation on Text Embedding 004 is modeled at 300,000 requests per month, costing $4.80 per month or $0.0096 per active user.
Method & trust
This projection combines the selected active-user tier, requests per user per day, input/output tokens per request, and the modeled cache share. It is an operating estimate, not a provider invoice; production traffic and retries should be measured against it.
Total expected API invoice for 500 Active Users generating 300,000 queries.
Direct inference cost per MAU to model your SaaS pricing tiers and gross margins.
Savings generated by exploiting 30% cache hits on prompt context.
| Model | Provider | Monthly Spend (500 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text Embedding 004 (Current) | $4.80 | $0.0096 | $57.60 | 8,192 | |
| Text Embedding 3 (Small) | openai | $4.80 | $0.0096 | $57.60 | 8,191 |
| Text Embedding 3 (Large) | openai | $31.20 | $0.0624 | $374.40 | 8,191 |
At 20 queries per user/day with Text Embedding 004, the estimated cost is $0.0096 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 500 Active Users is $4.80.
Assuming a 30% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $0.00 per month ($0.00/year) on Text Embedding 004.
With a direct COGS of $0.0096 per user/month on Text Embedding 004, charging at least $0.048 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.