If you're building automations in Make, n8n, or Zapier and you're still connecting directly to ChatGPT's API at full price, you're basically lighting money on fire. Here's what to try instead.
The One Thing You Need to Know
Stop paying $20/month for ChatGPT Plus. Stop paying another $20 for Claude. Stop paying $30 for Midjourney. You're spending $70+ on subscriptions you barely use, or only use may be 3 days out of the whole month.
Instead: Use OpenRouter or Kie.ai. One API key. Hundreds of models. and Pay only for what you actually use if your workflow is already streamed lined
For Make/Zapier/n8n Users
If you're doing text stuff (emails, summaries, chatbots):
- OpenRouter – Single API key, works with everything
- Start with $10 credit. It'll last you weeks, maybe months
- Use their “Auto” routing – it picks the cheapest working model automatically
and OpenRouter will have the most updated and newest AI model all showing up, so you know what's new. Especially for those that felt lost or fell behind on what's new on the market.
If you're doing images or video:
- Kie.ai – Same deal, but 80% cheaper than going direct
- $5 gets you started. That's 125+ images versus maybe 20 on Midjourney, Nano Banana and use it as you go and it's NOT monthly subscription
The Model Strategy Nobody Tells You
Here's where people waste money: using expensive models for cheap tasks.
90% of your automation tasks are “tiny tasks”:
- Summarizing emails
- Extracting data from text
- Writing simple responses
- Tagging or categorizing stuff
For these, use: GPT-4o Mini ($0.15 per million input tokens) or DeepSeek V3.2 ($0.25 per million).
That email summary that costs $0.05 on GPT-5.2 Pro? Costs $0.0003 on GPT-4o Mini. Same result. 160x cheaper.
Only use expensive models when mistakes cost money:
- Legal document analysis → Claude Opus 4.5
- Complex coding tasks → GPT-5.2 Pro
- Medical/financial advice → o1-pro
Otherwise? Utility models handle it fine.
The Image Workflow That Doesn't Break the Bank
Forget Midjourney's $30/month when you're only making 50 images.
For quick edits and bulk work:
- Nano Banana (standard) via Kie.ai
- $0.02-$0.04 per image
- Perfect for “change this shirt color” or “remove background”
- 1,000 images = $20
For final, publish-ready work:
- Nano Banana Pro
- $0.12-$0.24 per image
- Use this for client deliverables, not rough drafts
The actual strategy: Generate 10 variations with standard. Pick the best one. Refine it with Pro. Total cost: $0.40 instead of $3.00.
What to Actually Connect in Your Automation
In Make/Zapier: Use the HTTP module, not the native ChatGPT integration. Why? Because native integrations lock you to one provider at full price.
Set up one HTTP request template pointing to OpenRouter. Now you can switch between GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, whatever—without rebuilding your entire automation.
In n8n: Same thing, but n8n has better AI nodes. Still, use their generic “HTTP Request” or “OpenAI-compatible” nodes with OpenRouter's endpoint. Never hardcode to a single model.
The Three Rules for Not Losing Money
Rule 1: Draft cheap, refine expensive Don't generate 50 variations using Claude Opus. Generate 50 with GPT-4o Mini (costs $0.10), then refine the best 3 with Opus (costs $0.30). Total: $0.40 instead of $8.00.
Rule 2: Cache everything you use twice Brand guidelines. Company info. Product descriptions. These should be cached on the API side (OpenRouter supports this). First call costs normal price. Every repeat call costs 90% less. A cached 50,000-token document costs you $0.10 instead of $1.00 every time.
Rule 3: Set spending limits Every platform lets you cap monthly spend. Set it to $20 as a beginner. You'll get warnings before you burn through it on a broken loop.
What Actually Happens in Real Life
Scenario: E-commerce product descriptions
The expensive way: ChatGPT Plus subscription ($20/mo) + Midjourney ($30/mo) + manually doing everything = $50/month + 6 hours of your time
The efficient way:
- Make automation pulls new products from Shopify
- GPT-4o Mini writes descriptions ($0.05 for 100 products)
- Nano Banana generates product images ($2.00 for 100 images)
- Total: $2.05 + 15 minutes of your time
You just saved $48 and 5.75 hours. Every month.
The Platforms Worth Your Time
OpenRouter – Text tasks, coding, analysis. Best model variety. Fair pricing. Use this first.
Kie.ai – Images and video. Deepest discounts on creative models. Use this if you're making visual content.
Groq – When you need instant responses (voice agents, real-time chat). Fastest in the market. Cheap too.
DeepInfra – Absolute lowest prices if speed doesn't matter. Batch jobs, background processing.
Don't overcomplicate it. Pick one text platform (OpenRouter) and one image platform (Kie.ai). That covers 95% of automation use cases.
The Mistake That Will Cost You
Never, ever put your API key directly in your automation's code where you can see it. Use environment variables or Make/n8n's built-in secret storage.
If you share your automation or it gets compromised, someone will drain your credits in about 4 hours running crypto-spam through your key.
Bottom Line
You don't need subscriptions. You need access to the right model at the right price for each specific task.
$10 on OpenRouter will last longer than two months of ChatGPT Plus if you're not an idiot about model selection. $5 on Kie.ai gets you more images than a month of Midjourney unless you're generating hundreds daily.
Stop paying for potential. Start paying for actual usage.
Set up OpenRouter today. Connect it to one automation. Watch how little it actually costs when you use GPT-4o Mini instead of the expensive models for simple tasks.
That's it. No fluff. No theoretical framework. Just the setup that keeps your costs under $20/month while doing more than people spending $200.