For bootstrapped SaaS founders under €30K MRR with AI features in production, the metric that matters is token cost per active user (not total monthly AI spend). Total monthly spend is the lagging indicator that signals problems only after they have crossed gross-margin thresholds; cost per active user is the leading indicator that catches runaway patterns before they erode unit economics. The defensible cancellation-trigger threshold sits at 30-40% of per-user revenue. Four levers when the cost crosses the trigger, ranked by disruption: provider-tier switch (40-70% reduction, low impact), prompt and caching optimisation (20-40% reduction, moderate impact), product change (30-60% reduction, high impact), provider switch (10-30% reduction, highest disruption). Token cost dropped roughly 90% from 2023-2026 but per-user cost stayed flat because product features pulled 10-30x more tokens per session and user behaviour shifted toward higher engagement.

Cohort: bootstrapped SaaS founder under €30K MRR with AI features in production. Cadence 60-day. Trigger conditions: foundation-model provider releasing tier that materially changes cost-per-user math; aggregate published data on bootstrapped SaaS AI cost-per-user that benchmarks the 30-40% threshold; regulatory or platform-economic changes altering vendor cost structure. Indicative pricing figures marked source:our-estimate. Sister claims: AM-136 (foundation-model uptime + pricing), OPS-014 (AI vendor due diligence). Note: published as OPS-056 (not OPS-051 as originally drafted) because OPS-051 was already taken by an unrelated AI client-proposals claim.