Semantic Caching: Stop Paying Twice for the Same Question
In many apps, users ask the same handful of questions over and over. Semantic caching recognizes those repeats and answers from a cache, so you stop paying the model for work it already did.
Repeated questions are pure waste
High-traffic assistants and search tools see heavy overlap in queries. Without a cache, every duplicate hits the model at full token cost — money spent regenerating an answer you already have.
Hit rate is the whole game
Savings scale directly with cache hit rate: a 40 percent hit rate cuts roughly 40 percent of model calls. Semantic matching (not just exact text) raises hits by catching questions that mean the same thing.
Calculators for this topic
Frequently asked questions
How much does semantic caching save?+
Roughly in proportion to your cache hit rate — if 40 percent of queries repeat, you avoid about 40 percent of model calls.
How is it different from prompt caching?+
Prompt caching discounts repeated input within a call; semantic caching skips the model entirely for repeated questions.