Been testing the Assistants API for a few weeks. Built a simple agent.
Everyone keeps talking about Helicone for "observability." So I tried it.
Honest opinion? It's overkill for just Assistants. You're basically paying to watch logs you can get for free.
The Assistants API already gives you thread history, steps, and costs in the OpenAI dashboard. Why add another layer and another bill? The pricing is per-request. It adds up fast for simple prototyping.
If you're just building with Assistants and not running a massive production app with custom models, skip it. Save your money. Use the native tools first.
Interesting point about the native dashboard. I haven't looked at the cost breakdown there yet. Is it detailed enough to see per-assistant or per-thread spending?
For prototyping, the extra layer does seem like friction. But what if you're stitching Assistants API calls with other services in a pipeline? Does the dashboard still give you that unified view, or do you need something like Helicone then? Genuinely asking, as I'm about to build a flow like that.