Why Cheap Model starts with one compatible integration layer
Compatibility lowers migration cost, but it also creates a cleaner foundation for routing, pricing, and provider choice.
The easiest way to slow down an AI product is to make every provider decision feel like a rewrite. We wanted Cheap Model to start from the opposite premise: teams should be able to keep one familiar integration path while they learn where different providers actually help.
Compatibility is a business decision
Compatibility is not only about developer convenience. OpenAI-compatible requests and Anthropic-native requests can both sit behind one gateway, shortening the distance between evaluation and deployment without forcing teams to rebuild the same workflow again and again.
Routing only helps when the entry point is stable
Provider routing becomes much more practical when product code does not need to understand every vendor-specific difference first. A stable integration layer gives teams room to decide where cost, latency, or quality matter most.
Billing clarity matters just as much
Once multiple providers are in play, cost confusion shows up quickly. A compatible integration surface is more useful when it is paired with better billing visibility and clearer workload-level decisions.
What we are optimizing for
We are not trying to make every provider identical. We are trying to make provider choice easier to reason about, so teams can move faster without losing control.
