I'm building a platform that requires users to go through a selfie-based verification process before they can access certain features.

Currently, I'm using the ChatGPT API to analyze selfies and estimate the person's age and apparent gender. The results have been surprisingly good for my use case, but the API costs are becoming too high as I think about scaling.

I'm wondering if there are more affordable alternatives that offer reasonably reliable results.

For those who have built similar verification systems, what approach worked best for you in terms of accuracy, latency, and cost?

Thanks!