SaaS AI cost blowups — middleware to cut API spend (proxy + optimizer)

SaaS AI cost blowups — middleware to cut API spend (proxy + optimizer) targets a $12.0B = 1.5M SaaS businesses x $8,000 avg annual AI-related spend (inference + ops + tooling) total addressable market with low saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 30-45% CAGR in AI-enabled SaaS & inference spend as more apps add LLM features.

Key trends driving demand: Open-source LLM availability -- lowers marginal cost for self-hosting and enables hybrid routing strategies.; RAG & vector search adoption -- reduces token needs by retrieving concise context instead of re-sending whole docs.; Finely-grained billing pain -- SaaS founders track unpredictable API bills and seek tools to forecast and cap spend.; Inference marketplaces & multi-provider ecosystems -- increase opportunities to dynamically pick cheaper providers..