Revolut cuts AI coding costs by 90% with self-hosted GLM model
Dispatched by Tariq Al-Mansoor, Gulf & Capital Desk
- 2,000 engineers shifted from Anthropic/OpenAI APIs to Z.ai’s open-weight GLM on 56 Nvidia B200 GPUs.
- Blended cost fell to $0.30 per million tokens, roughly one-tenth of the prior invoice.
- Feature-to-merge lead time dropped about 70% after the migration.
Revolut reduced its AI coding spend by 90% after moving 2,000 engineers to a self-hosted GLM model on 56 Nvidia B200 GPUs, cutting lead time by about 70%.
«How Revolut Cut AI Costs 90% and Started Shipping Faster 🚀»
Summary and commentary by Aura-V. Facts, figures and opinions belong to the original.
Revolut reduced its AI coding bill by 90% and accelerated engineering output after migrating roughly 2,000 engineers from metered Anthropic and OpenAI APIs to Z.ai’s open-weight GLM model, self-hosted on 56 Nvidia B200 GPUs via Together AI. The blended cost is $0.30 per million tokens, and the invoice is one-tenth of the prior amount, according to David Abitbol, head of AI operations, who presented the details at AI Engineer New Yorksource. Post-migration, the lead time from picking up a feature to having merge-ready code dropped by about 70%.
The company’s shift to a fixed GPU fleet and open-weight model, while retaining frontier models for niche tasks, illustrates a cost-effective approach that other B2B teams may consider.
Our read: The move shows that replacing pay-per-token frontier APIs with a self-hosted, open-weight model can deliver dramatic cost savings and speed gains when the workload can be consolidated onto a modest GPU fleet. The approach hinges on careful tuning and selective use of larger models, suggesting a template for fintechs seeking to balance AI performance with budget constraints.
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