← A Harpd productAI model replacement
Can you replace Claude with a cheaper model?
Stop paying for capability you don't need. Harpd benchmarks real candidate models against your own tasks and tells you, with evidence, when a cheaper model is safe to switch to — without breaking production or sending test answers to your users.
Your workload, not a public leaderboardNo live traffic reroutingSwitch only when evidence holds
CURRENTClaude · $284/mo
RECOMMENDEDModel X · $51/mo
Quality delta−0.8%
Reliability98.7%
Est. saving$233/mo (82%)
✓ SAFE TO TEST
Answer
Harpd ModelSwitch finds the cheapest AI model that does your real work just as well as the expensive one you use today — by testing candidate models against your own tasks and measuring quality, cost, speed and reliability, then only recommending a switch when the evidence shows it is safe. It does not reroute live traffic; candidate models are shadow-tested in the background.
Models are turning into commodities — but "which one is good enough for me" is still unsolved.
Public leaderboards tell you which model is strongest on average. They cannot tell you which cheap model is good enough for your support replies, invoices or code reviews. That gap is where teams quietly overpay.
From "is a cheaper model safe?" to a concrete answer.
Shadow test
Mirror a sample of your real requests to candidate models. Candidate answers are evaluated internally — never shown to users.
Measure
Score each candidate on quality, cost, speed and reliability against your own tasks — not a public benchmark.
Compare
Compute cost per successful task for each candidate versus your current model, including failure rate.
Recommend
Only say "safe to canary" when the evidence holds over real traffic. The expensive model stays as fallback.
$99 AI Model Replacement Audit
You send 50–200 representative tasks. We test 5–10 candidate models against them and deliver a Replacement Report you can act on.
Quick Model Test
Free
- 20 tasks
- 3 candidate models
- A fast read on whether cheaper models are in range
Model Replacement Report
$99
- 100 tasks
- 5–10 candidate models
- Quality · Cost · Speed · Reliability
- Estimated monthly saving + quality delta
Full AI Cost Audit
$299
- 300 tasks
- 10–15 candidate models
- Stability test (repeat runs)
- Recommended replacement + annual saving
Model Watch
$79/mo
- Re-test when new models or prices appear
- Continuous eval on your workload
- Email alert when a safer-cheaper option shows up
Enterprise versions can charge a share of verified savings. The audit proves the number first.
Model replacement, in plain terms
What is AI model replacement?
Model replacement means swapping an expensive AI model (for example Claude or GPT) for a cheaper one that does your specific work just as well. The catch is that public benchmarks do not tell you which cheap model is good at your tasks — so Harpd tests candidate models against your own real prompts and only recommends a switch when the evidence holds.
How is this different from an AI router?
A router guesses difficulty per request and sends each prompt to a different model. That breaks output consistency, defeats prefix caching, and adds unpredictability. Harpd does the opposite: it picks one model per workload and keeps it stable, so behaviour, caching and cost stay predictable. We do not route live traffic.
How do you measure quality?
Different tasks use different evals: JSON extraction is checked against a schema; code is checked with unit tests, lint and build; classification uses accuracy and F1; support and prose use an LLM judge plus a sample of human preference. The point is not a generic leaderboard score — it is whether the candidate passes your quality bar.
What is shadow testing and why is it safe?
We mirror a sample of your real requests to a candidate model and evaluate its answers internally. The candidate model never answers your users. Only after it passes on real traffic for a week do we recommend a canary — and even then the expensive model stays as a fallback.
What does "Cost per Successful Task" mean?
A model that is cheap per token but fails often is not actually cheap. Harpd divides total spend by the number of tasks completed correctly, so the number you compare is the real cost of getting work done — not the headline token price.
How much can I save?
It depends on your workload, but teams that move a suitable task from a top-tier model to a passing cheaper model commonly see large drops in cost per successful task. The audit gives you a concrete, evidence-backed estimate for your tasks rather than a generic figure.
Find out this week
Get a $99 Model Replacement Audit