Shipping Is the Start
Building an app is only the beginning. The real cost of software is running and maintaining it over time — long after the first version works.
Where Cost Comes From
A running app spends money and time in a few predictable places.
- Hosting & compute — the servers that keep it online
- The LLM / API bills — charged per token or per call
- Storage & bandwidth — data kept and data moved
- Your own maintenance time — the hours you spend keeping it working
For AI tools, the model calls are often the biggest line.
Code Rots
Software does not stand still: dependencies update, requirements change, and small shortcuts pile up. Simple, readable, tested code is cheap to maintain; tangled code is expensive.
Watch the Trend
Both cost and load grow with usage. What is comfortable today can strain a tool as more people use it — so watch the direction, not just the number in front of you.
Make Cost Visible
Plan for the tool you actually have, keep it simple, and make cost visible from the start — so surprises do not quietly accumulate into a bill you did not expect.
Build It
How to implement: estimate your tool’s monthly cost in three lines — hosting, model calls, storage — and note the one you’d cut first if it spiked.
- Weekly AI Tasks tracker — the LLM calls dominate the bill; caching and short prompts (Module 5, Module 9) are how you control it.
- Personal brand site — near-zero to run on a static host; the “cost” is your time keeping the content current.
What you learned
Module 2 gave you the software literacy to plan and direct real builds — and to see that a tool’s true cost is the running and maintaining, not the shipping.