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Once evaluations define what correct means, cost becomes a search problem instead of a guess. The quality bar is fixed, so you can try cheaper configurations and keep any that still pass. The goal is not the most capable model; it is the cheapest one that does the job.

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Why model choice is the cost lever

A workflow’s cost is mostly its model choices: the OCR engine and the language model each step uses. Those are configuration, not code, so they are easy to change. Evaluations tell you whether a change broke anything.

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Swap a model and re-run

Change the model on the relevant step, push a new version, and run the experiment. If the score still clears the threshold, you lowered cost with no loss of reliability.
compare shows you exactly which examples moved, so a small quality drop on a non-critical field is a deliberate decision rather than a surprise.

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Re-run the search when prices change

Prices change and new models ship. Because the evaluations are permanent, you can re-run this search whenever that happens and re-pick the cheapest passing configuration. Operating cost stays at the minimum required to hold the agreed quality level, without anyone re-checking outputs by hand.