Few-Shot Prompt Cost Calculator
Estimate the added cost of few-shot examples.
With the default inputs, $0.000937 added per request — 750 tokens of examples · ~$140.63/month. Enter your own numbers below to recompute instantly; the full step-by-step math is shown under the worked example.
Results update automatically as you type.
- Example tokens
- 750 tokens
- Added cost / request
- $0.000937
- Added cost / month
- $140.63
Few-shot examples improve accuracy but add input tokens to every call. Set the number and size of examples to see the added cost per request and per month.
How this is calculated
Added cost per request = number of examples × tokens per example × input price, scaled by requests per day × 30 for the monthly figure. Few-shot examples are re-sent on every call, so their cost is linear in both example size and volume.
Is this a good result? What to do next
Examples are worth it when they lift accuracy more than they cost — but at high volume that recurring token cost adds up. If it's large, caching the example block or fine-tuning (a one-time cost) is usually cheaper long-term.
Typical planning ranges
- Cost scales with
- examples × tokens × volume
- Cached example block
- ~10% of normal input rate
- Break-even vs fine-tuning
- at high, steady volume
Ranges are typical planning figures to sanity-check your result, not authoritative benchmarks. Your numbers will vary with use case, volume, and vendor.
How to improve this number
- Use the fewest examples that hold accuracy.
- Cache the example block if the provider supports it.
- Fine-tune to bake in behavior and drop examples at scale.
Common mistakes
- Adding examples without measuring the accuracy gain.
- Ignoring that examples are billed on every single request.
When to use a different approach
To compare against fine-tuning, use the fine-tune vs prompt calculator. For the system prompt specifically, use the system prompt cost calculator.
Worked example (defaults)
With the default inputs above, here is the result:
- Example tokens
- 750 tokens
- Added cost / request
- $0.000937
- Added cost / month
- $140.63
Sources & references
Frequently asked questions
Are few-shot examples worth the cost?+
Often yes for accuracy, but they multiply input tokens. Cache them if stable, or fine-tune to bake the behavior in and drop the examples.
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