How should billing work when an AI system auto-selects the model?

Colddew-YJ · reddit · 2026-09-07

The author argues that model routing and billing decisions can't be treated separately. In their design, the final model is selected before any pre-consumption; on success the system settles against actual token use, and on failure refunds through the existing billing path — so users only pay for the model that actually ran, not ones merely considered. It's locally verified but not production-proven. They ask whether auto-routed requests should surface the model that ran and its cost basis.

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