At 10 requests/user/day (totaling 30,000,000 queries/mo), running RAG / search-augmented answers on Claude Sonnet 5 costs $414,000.00 / month ($4.14 / user / mo).
Total expected API invoice for 100,000 Active Users generating 30,000,000 queries.
Direct inference cost per MAU to model your SaaS pricing tiers and gross margins.
Savings generated by exploiting 50% cache hits on prompt context.
| Model | Provider | Monthly Spend (100,000 Active Users) | Cost / User / Mo | Annual Spend | Context Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 5 (Current) | anthropic | $414,000.00 | $4.14 | $4,968,000.00 | 1,000,000 |
| GPT-5.6 Terra | openai | $444,000.00 | $4.44 | $5,328,000.00 | 1,050,000 |
| GPT-5.4 Workhorse | openai | $555,000.00 | $5.55 | $6,660,000.00 | 256,000 |
| o3-mini | openai | $264,000.00 | $2.64 | $3,168,000.00 | 200,000 |
| o4-mini | openai | $231,000.00 | $2.31 | $2,772,000.00 | 256,000 |
| o1-mini | openai | $264,000.00 | $2.64 | $3,168,000.00 | 128,000 |
At 10 queries per user/day with Claude Sonnet 5, the estimated cost is $4.14 per monthly active user (MAU). Total monthly bill for 100,000 Active Users is $414,000.00.
Assuming a 50% cache hit rate on repeated system and context tokens, prompt caching saves $216,000.00 per month ($2,592,000.00/year) on Claude Sonnet 5.
With a direct COGS of $4.14 per user/month on Claude Sonnet 5, charging at least $20.70 per user/month ensures an 80%+ software gross margin.