Launch HN: Tokenless (YC S26) – Automatic model switching to save money

Tokenless (YC S26) launched a drop-in API router that automatically selects the most cost-effective AI model for each request, claiming to cut inference costs by up to 57% while maintaining quality. The startup, founded by AI researchers from Google DeepMind, Princeton, and UC Berkeley, exposes an OpenAI and Anthropic compatible endpoint and is backed by Y Combinator.

less The router that cuts your inference bill in half. A drop-in replacement for your API calls — always routed to the right model. Same quality, half the cost. Most calls don’t need a frontier model. Tokenless fans out your request to a group of models and watches them think. Once a model is clearly on track, we select it and cancel the other models, and you only pay for what you need. We expose an OpenAI and Anthropic compatible endpoint. Point your models at us and get started today Measured, not marketed. Cost versus quality on public coding benchmarks — the same quality as Opus 4.8, at a fraction of the cost per task. | Model | Solved | $ / task | vs Cheap. | |---|---|---|---| | PRO | 72% | $0.32 | -57% | | GPT 5.5 | 76% | $0.74 | — | | Opus 4.8 | 72% | $2.41 | — | | MAX | 82% | $6.70 | — | | PRO | GPT 5.5 | Opus 4.8 | MAX | | |---|---|---|---|---| | TerminalBench 2.1 | |||| | Solved | 72% | 76% | 72% | 82% | | $ / task | $0.32 | $0.74 | $2.41 | $6.70 | | vs Cheapest | -57% | — | — | — | | LiveCodeBench | |||| | Solved | 89.0% | 85.7% | 88.9% | 90.4% | | total $ | $74.78 | $84.27 | $80.01 | $85.33 | | vs Cheapest | -7% | — | — | — | Need maximum quality instead of maximum savings? MAX routes each task to the best available model. See what you’d save. Estimates use published token prices including cache rates and editable routing assumptions in the source. Your rate depends on your traffic. Spend history & trend: Ramp AI Index — AI spend per employee, Jun 2025–Jun 2026, matched to the cohort your spend sits in and extrapolated at its trailing 12-month growth. Built by AI researchers from Google DeepMind, Princeton, and UC Berkeley. Backed by Y Combinator. Cut the bill. Keep the quality. Book a demo and we’ll run the numbers on your actual traffic — or swap two lines and see for yourself.