When streaming, close the connection as soon as the part you care about arrives instead of letting the model run to its natural stop. You only pay for tokens actually generated before the abort.
Abort the Stream the Moment You Have Enough
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More in Output Control
Return IDs and Enums, Not Sentences
For classification, routing, and selection tasks, have the model emit a short code, ID, or enum value instead of a polite sentence. The downstream code only needs the token, not the prose around it.
Strip the Preamble: Ask for the Answer Only
Chat models love to restate your question, add caveats, and offer follow-ups. On high-volume tasks those wrapper tokens dominate the bill. Tell the model to return only the payload.
Set max_tokens as a Hard Cost Ceiling, Not an Afterthought
Output tokens are the expensive half of most API bills. Setting an explicit max_tokens on every API call turns an open-ended cost into a known maximum.