GuideAI · 6 min
How do we get our AI spend under control?
Find every AI bill (seats, API usage and tools teams bought on their own), cut what nobody uses, and send the rest through one governed way in, on your rules.
The Clectiv team ·
AI spend gets out of hand because nobody bought it all at once. One team bought seats, another put API usage on a card, a third switched on an add-on inside a tool you already pay for. Find it all first. Then the fixes are simple.
Where does AI spend hide?#
In five places, and they rarely sit on one bill. Pull every one into a single list before you cut anything.
| Where | What you're paying for | How to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Seats | Copilot and chat licenses: Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude | Your admin consoles and software contracts |
| API usage | Teams building on AI models, billed by use | Cloud bills and each model's own billing page |
| Add-ons | AI features switched on inside software you already pay for | Your existing software invoices, line by line |
| Expensed tools | AI apps people bought on a card | Expense reports and card statements |
| Compute | GPUs and cloud capacity for your own models | Cloud bills, by project |
The expensed tools carry the biggest risk. Each one is company data going somewhere nobody approved. That's shadow AI, and finding it helps security as much as cost.
Put a name next to every bill. Each one needs an owner who can say whether it's still needed. Spend with no owner is the first thing to cut.
Before you call anyone#
That list belongs in Clectiv AI before any AI vendor hears about your renewal. Then Clectiv AI runs the process, the providers that fit compete with bids of their own, and you choose. Call one first and you're renewing on its seat count, not yours.
Seats or usage: what should we pay for?#
Seats for the people who use it every day, usage for everyone else. A seat for someone who opens the tool twice a month is money you'll never see back.
The usage reports already know who's who. Admin consoles show who's active and how often, and Clectiv AI's plan sorts the seats from there: daily users keep theirs, and the rest get pay-as-you-go access with a budget.
Pay-as-you-go needs a cap. Without one, a test project can become the biggest line on the cloud bill.
Check what you already own. Some software suites now include AI features. Look at the licenses you have before buying another seat.
Check whether you're paying twice. The same model can show up as a chat seat, an add-on inside another tool, and API usage, all for the same person.
One hint: cut seats before the renewal. Seat counts are easiest to change while the contract's open, and the Clectiv team negotiates the rest on your real usage.
What does one governed way in look like?#
One door between your people and the AI models, with your rules on it. It's often called an LLM gateway: a single access point that every app and every person goes through to reach the models.
- One bill, and a view of who uses what.
- Your data rules, enforced: what can be sent, what gets masked, what's blocked.
- Budgets by team, so one project can't burn through everyone's money.
- Routing to cheaper models for easy work, saving the expensive ones for hard work.
Write the rules with Clectiv AI before you pick the gateway. Which data can go to which models, who approves a new tool, and what each team can spend. The gateway enforces the rules you wrote.
That's how AI spend gets controlled without slowing anyone down. People keep their tools. You keep the rules and the bill.
Liminal sells governed access to AI models. Trimio sells AI cost control: routing, caching and spend reporting. All of them are AI providers we work with, and Clectiv AI runs the process for you: start a project.
That's a road we've traveled. Clectiv AI runs the process we've run for other customers, so you start where they finished. It takes the plan straight to these providers for the best pricing, terms and contract we can get.
Common questions#
How do we find shadow AI?#
Should we buy AI seats for everyone?#
What is an LLM gateway?#
When should we cut AI seats?#
Who should own our AI spend?#
How does Clectiv AI get this done?#
Begin in Clectiv AI. Tell it what AI you pay for and what worries you about it. It scopes the project with you and writes your plan: what you use AI for, how adoption is going, what the rules are, and what it costs today.
Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the AI providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. The bids come back side by side as the providers compete, the team pushes on terms, and you choose.
Others finished what you're starting. Clectiv AI runs the process we built with them, so you start where they ended up. The plan reaches the providers that fit directly, for the best pricing, terms and contract we can get.
It's free to you, and you have answers in days, not months. The rest of what we source in AI is on the AI page.
Got pilots that never shipped too? Read how to get an AI pilot into production.
Sources and method. No prices appear in this guide. Product names are the ones on buyers' bills, as the AI page lists them. Provider names are examples of who sells AI governance and AI cost control, from Clectiv's provider directory, not a ranking.