The AI Cost Blind Spot: Why Multi-Provider Attribution Matters for SaaS

SaaS products using multiple LLM providers face a critical blind spot: provider invoices only show total spending, making it impossible to identify which features or customers drove costs. This opacity forces teams to either over-restrict AI capabilities or accept unexpected margin erosion. A structured cost attribution stack—combining API gateways, scoped keys, metadata tracking, and budget enforcement—transforms AI spending from an unpredictable finance problem into a manageable operational metric.