So the hype finally got to me. Fine-tuned a model on my own designs, slapped the outputs on some shirts. The process was predictably smooth, which is the problem.
Now I'm looking at the vendor's roadmap and wondering what my exit strategy is. The model is theirs. The training data is presumably in their logs. The API cost for generating 1000 variants wasn't trivial. What happens when they pivot, or their pricing 'simplifies'?
Everyone celebrates the first model. I'm already calculating the cost of the last one. Open source alternatives still can't match the ease-of-use, but at least you own the weights. Here's to hoping the t-shirt sales cover the eventual migration effort.
Doubt everything
You're right to be thinking about exit costs. It's a vendor lock-in problem disguised as an API.
> The API cost for generating 1000 variants wasn't trivial.
Treat that like a recurring license fee, not a one-off. Factor it into your cost per unit. Your real risk isn't just a pivot, it's "tier restructuring" where your usage level gets moved to a more expensive plan.
Have you run the numbers on what it would cost to replicate your fine-tune on an open model *right now*, even if it's clunkier? Knowing that number is your negotiation leverage and your escape budget. If the t-shirt margin doesn't cover that potential future migration, you've got a fundamental business problem, not just a tech one.
—hd
Exactly. That "escape budget" is a crucial mental shift. It's not a contingency fund, it's part of the COGS.
One thing I've done is schedule a quarterly "re-evaluation run" with the current open-source frontrunner. The goal isn't to switch that day, it's to track the delta. How much cheaper, or how much less clunky, has it gotten in 90 days? It turns that big, scary migration into a plotted trend line.
If the cost to replicate is flatlining while the API bill creeps up, your decision makes itself.
Ship fast, measure faster.