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Automation Squad
Hand to your teamWritten for Claude or ChatGPT (file upload)

Work out what I'm actually spending on AI and what to cut

Robert MacKelfresh

By Robert MacKelfresh

Founder, Automation Squad

AI spend fragments across per-seat subscriptions, usage-based API bills, and things bundled invisibly into other products, so almost nobody has a real number. Section 5 is the one worth the exercise — usage-based cost tied to a metric you're deliberately growing is a bill that arrives without a decision ever being made.

The prompt

I'm going to give you our AI-related spend. Help me work out what's actually happening.

What I'm attaching or pasting: [CARD STATEMENT LINES, INVOICES, A LIST OF SUBSCRIPTIONS, API BILLING EXPORTS — whatever you have]
Team size: [HOW MANY PEOPLE]
What we mainly use AI for: [THE TWO OR THREE REAL JOBS]

Work through it:

1. THE TOTAL, MONTHLY AND ANNUALISED. Say plainly if you can't tell — partial data producing a confident total is the worst outcome here.

2. SEATS VERSUS USAGE. Split fixed per-seat subscriptions from variable API or usage-based spend. These behave completely differently as we grow and get managed differently.

3. THE DUPLICATES. Two tools doing the same job. Be specific about which capability overlaps, because "they're both AI tools" is not overlap.

4. THE SEATS NOBODY USES. Where the data supports it, flag paid seats with no sign of activity. If the data doesn't support it, tell me what to export to find out.

5. THE LINE THAT WILL GROW WITHOUT ASKING. Usage-based spend that scales with something we're actively trying to increase. That's next quarter's surprise, and it's the most useful thing on this list.

6. THE THREE CUTS, ranked by annual saving, each with what we'd lose. No cut is free — if you present one as free, you haven't found the cost yet.

7. WHAT I CAN'T SEE FROM THIS DATA. Shadow spend on personal cards, per-seat licences bought by another department, anything inside a bundle. Tell me where to look.

Show your arithmetic on every number. Never round in a way that flatters the total.

Copy it, paste it, run it. Nothing here is gated.

More for the same job

Written for Claude or ChatGPT (file upload) as of August 2026. Models change — if this stops working the way it should, that is worth telling us about.