jeremylongshore

vastai-cost-tuning

@jeremylongshore/vastai-cost-tuning
jeremylongshore
1,004
123 forks
Updated 1/18/2026
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Optimize Vast.ai costs through tier selection, sampling, and usage monitoring. Use when analyzing Vast.ai billing, reducing API costs, or implementing usage monitoring and budget alerts. Trigger with phrases like "vastai cost", "vastai billing", "reduce vastai costs", "vastai pricing", "vastai expensive", "vastai budget".

Installation

$skills install @jeremylongshore/vastai-cost-tuning
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Details

Pathplugins/saas-packs/vastai-pack/skills/vastai-cost-tuning/SKILL.md
Branchmain
Scoped Name@jeremylongshore/vastai-cost-tuning

Usage

After installing, this skill will be available to your AI coding assistant.

Verify installation:

skills list

Skill Instructions


name: vastai-cost-tuning description: | Optimize Vast.ai costs through tier selection, sampling, and usage monitoring. Use when analyzing Vast.ai billing, reducing API costs, or implementing usage monitoring and budget alerts. Trigger with phrases like "vastai cost", "vastai billing", "reduce vastai costs", "vastai pricing", "vastai expensive", "vastai budget". allowed-tools: Read, Grep version: 1.0.0 license: MIT author: Jeremy Longshore jeremy@intentsolutions.io

Vast.ai Cost Tuning

Overview

Optimize Vast.ai costs through smart tier selection, sampling, and usage monitoring.

Prerequisites

  • Access to Vast.ai billing dashboard
  • Understanding of current usage patterns
  • Database for usage tracking (optional)
  • Alerting system configured (optional)

Pricing Tiers

TierMonthly CostIncludedOverage
Free$01,000 requestsN/A
Pro$99100,000 requests$0.001/request
EnterpriseCustomUnlimitedVolume discounts

Cost Estimation

interface UsageEstimate {
  requestsPerMonth: number;
  tier: string;
  estimatedCost: number;
  recommendation?: string;
}

function estimateVast.aiCost(requestsPerMonth: number): UsageEstimate {
  if (requestsPerMonth <= 1000) {
    return { requestsPerMonth, tier: 'Free', estimatedCost: 0 };
  }

  if (requestsPerMonth <= 100000) {
    return { requestsPerMonth, tier: 'Pro', estimatedCost: 99 };
  }

  const proOverage = (requestsPerMonth - 100000) * 0.001;
  const proCost = 99 + proOverage;

  return {
    requestsPerMonth,
    tier: 'Pro (with overage)',
    estimatedCost: proCost,
    recommendation: proCost > 500
      ? 'Consider Enterprise tier for volume discounts'
      : undefined,
  };
}

Usage Monitoring

class Vast.aiUsageMonitor {
  private requestCount = 0;
  private bytesTransferred = 0;
  private alertThreshold: number;

  constructor(monthlyBudget: number) {
    this.alertThreshold = monthlyBudget * 0.8; // 80% warning
  }

  track(request: { bytes: number }) {
    this.requestCount++;
    this.bytesTransferred += request.bytes;

    if (this.estimatedCost() > this.alertThreshold) {
      this.sendAlert('Approaching Vast.ai budget limit');
    }
  }

  estimatedCost(): number {
    return estimateVast.aiCost(this.requestCount).estimatedCost;
  }

  private sendAlert(message: string) {
    // Send to Slack, email, PagerDuty, etc.
  }
}

Cost Reduction Strategies

Step 1: Request Sampling

function shouldSample(samplingRate = 0.1): boolean {
  return Math.random() < samplingRate;
}

// Use for non-critical telemetry
if (shouldSample(0.1)) { // 10% sample
  await vastaiClient.trackEvent(event);
}

Step 2: Batching Requests

// Instead of N individual calls
await Promise.all(ids.map(id => vastaiClient.get(id)));

// Use batch endpoint (1 call)
await vastaiClient.batchGet(ids);

Step 3: Caching (from P16)

  • Cache frequently accessed data
  • Use cache invalidation webhooks
  • Set appropriate TTLs

Step 4: Compression

const client = new Vast.aiClient({
  compression: true, // Enable gzip
});

Budget Alerts

# Set up billing alerts in Vast.ai dashboard
# Or use API if available:
# Check Vast.ai documentation for billing APIs

Cost Dashboard Query

-- If tracking usage in your database
SELECT
  DATE_TRUNC('day', created_at) as date,
  COUNT(*) as requests,
  SUM(response_bytes) as bytes,
  COUNT(*) * 0.001 as estimated_cost
FROM vastai_api_logs
WHERE created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;

Instructions

Step 1: Analyze Current Usage

Review Vast.ai dashboard for usage patterns and costs.

Step 2: Select Optimal Tier

Use the cost estimation function to find the right tier.

Step 3: Implement Monitoring

Add usage tracking to catch budget overruns early.

Step 4: Apply Optimizations

Enable batching, caching, and sampling where appropriate.

Output

  • Optimized tier selection
  • Usage monitoring implemented
  • Budget alerts configured
  • Cost reduction strategies applied

Error Handling

IssueCauseSolution
Unexpected chargesUntracked usageImplement monitoring
Overage feesWrong tierUpgrade tier
Budget exceededNo alertsSet up alerts
Inefficient usageNo batchingEnable batch requests

Examples

Quick Cost Check

// Estimate monthly cost for your usage
const estimate = estimateVast.aiCost(yourMonthlyRequests);
console.log(`Tier: ${estimate.tier}, Cost: $${estimate.estimatedCost}`);
if (estimate.recommendation) {
  console.log(`💡 ${estimate.recommendation}`);
}

Resources

Next Steps

For architecture patterns, see vastai-reference-architecture.

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