Free Allowance or Self-Hosted Box? Compute the Crossover Before You Commit

说明与用途

确定免费令牌额度是否覆盖所需的合并 PR 数量，计算自托管的交叉点，并使用覆盖、运维和可逆性门来选择合适的路径。

问题

Deciding whether to use a free AI lane or self-hosted infrastructure when the free allowance is not directly expressed in the organization’s budgeting unit (merged pull requests).

结果

Teams can quantify the free allowance in merged PRs, identify the self-host crossover, and make an informed choice between free, self-hosted, or paid lanes based on coverage, ops, and reversibility gates.

工作流

• Measure tokens per merged PR using a script that aggregates usage data and reports median and p90.
• Convert the free allowance into covered PRs by dividing allowance tokens by median tokens per PR.
• Compute the self-host crossover by modeling cost per PR, fixed box costs, ops hours, and overage pricing to find break-even PRs per month.
• Apply three gates: coverage, ops, and reversibility to validate the decision.
• Choose the appropriate lane based on gate outcomes and fit criteria.

证据

our AI lane is free, so why does it feel expensive?

来源

MonkeyCode's operators state two things that matter for this decision: free model access with 10 million free tokens, and a free server option.

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Use the median for planning and the p90 for your worst-case gate.

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Self-hosting almost never wins on tokens alone. It wins on control.

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Three gates: Coverage gate, Ops gate, Reversibility gate.

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