· 8 min
Markdown vs Raw PDFs: Which Uses Fewer LLM Tokens?
A PDF page can cost an AI app three times the tokens of the same page as Markdown. Here's where that gap comes from, and when sending the PDF is still the right call.
The MDify Blog
Guides to clean Markdown, document conversion and AI token costs.
· 7 min
How to Cut LLM API Costs by 50% Without Losing Quality
Switching to a cheaper model is the least interesting way to save money on LLM APIs. Here are seven levers that cut waste instead, with the math behind each one.
· 7 min
PDFs Are Expensive for AI: Here's Why
The PDF file isn't the problem. What happens when an AI reads it is. Here's where the extra tokens come from, page by page, and how to stop paying for them.
· 7 min
Stop Sending Whole Documents to AI: Build a Better Pipeline
Sending a 100-page PDF to answer one question pays for 99 pages you didn't need. Here's the pipeline that sends only the part that answers.
· 6 min
The Hidden Token Tax in RAG Pipelines
Most RAG pipelines send five times the context the model needs, and nobody notices because the answers still look fine. Here's where that token tax comes from.
· 6 min
The Real Cost of RAG: Embeddings, Tokens and Re-Ranking
Teams worry about embedding prices while the real RAG bill grows at question time. Here's the full cost map, with the numbers that show where to optimize.
· 7 min
Why Your LLM Token Usage Is So High, and How to Fix It
Your questions are usually the smallest part of what you send an AI. Here are the six places tokens quietly pile up, and a 30-minute audit to find yours.
· 6 min
Your LLM Bill Is Probably 2x Higher Than It Needs to Be
Most LLM bills aren't high because AI is expensive. They're high because each request carries tokens nobody needed. Here's how one question grows to 31,970 tokens.