AI API Cost Comparison: Aggregators Beat Direct Providers by 97.5%

A startup founder found that using an API aggregator like Global API with DeepSeek V4 Flash costs $1.25 per 5 million tokens, versus $50 for direct GPT-4o, a 97.5% savings. At scale, monthly costs drop from $50,000 to $1,250. The article highlights payment and registration friction with cheaper direct providers like DeepSeek, which require Chinese payment methods.