The best AI coding tool is the one you actually use. The second best is the one you can afford to keep using.
That is why AI model routing cost optimization is not just a finance problem. It is a developer workflow problem.
If an AI coding assistant is expensive enough that you hesitate before using it, the product has already changed your behavior. Maybe you ask fewer questions. Maybe you avoid large context tasks. Maybe you save it for "important" work. Maybe you stop using the tool freely.
That hesitation is real friction.
Good cost optimization should reduce that friction without destroying quality.
