Separate the model bill from other services.
Record API usage at the selected model’s rates. Add any separate tools or service plans you choose as their own budget lines; they are not included in a token-rate comparison.
Look at the work carried between turns.
A coding task can send file context and tool output more than once. Use total billed tokens across the task, rather than counting only the first prompt and final answer.
| Task or recurring job | Runs per month | Measured API cost per completed run | Monthly estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your representative task | Enter expected runs | Use measured API cost | Runs × cost per run |
A worked API cost example.
Illustrative workload: 120 multi-turn coding tasks. Assume one API request per task with 60,000 uncached input tokens and 6,000 output tokens. Additional turns and retries add requests or tokens. These are budget assumptions, not client benchmark results.
Model: gpt-6-astra. Account group: default. Rates observed 2026-10-31; publisher references checked 2026-10-20. Context tiers are selected per request. The comparison uses standard publisher processing.
Cache reads and writes are zero in this example. Hosting, subscriptions and paid tools are additional. Change the token mix in the calculator to fit your own work.
| Budget input | Assumption or estimate |
|---|---|
| Model / exact Codimixa ID | gpt-6-astra |
| Requests or complete task samples | 120 |
| Uncached input / output per sample | 60,000 / 6,000 tokens |
| Codimixa input / output, USD per 1M | $10.00 / $50.00 |
| Estimated Codimixa API total | $108.00 |
| Estimated official API reference total | $108.00 |
Keep Cline’s configured prices current.
If you enter rate information in the client, match the model and the field’s units. Treat the displayed cost as an estimate and reconcile it with your account’s recorded usage.
Compare costs per accepted change.
Choose a small task set with tests or review criteria. Include unsuccessful attempts in its total cost, then divide by accepted changes. Compare the same work at the official and Codimixa rates.
A FEW DETAILS
Before you continue
Why can a short instruction create a large bill?
The instruction may trigger multiple model turns with repository context, tool results and outputs. Inspect the complete task usage to see which category grew.
Where does the 0.3× price apply?
Rates start at 0.3× the matching official API reference. Discounts vary by model; use the exact rate shown for its billing category.