Build the budget in three parts.
Model usage is only one line in an agent’s total operating cost.
| Cost | What to count | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Model API | Replies, tool-related turns and recurring model work | Applicable API rates and billed usage |
| Hosting | The machine or hosting service running the agent | Your hosting agreement or local costs |
| Paid tools | Search, browsing, media or other separately billed services | Each tool’s own billing records |
Count recurring work as well as conversations.
A task that runs repeatedly can add usage even when you are not chatting with the agent. List its frequency, average model usage and paid tool calls before including it in a monthly budget.
| 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: 60 scheduled summaries per day for 30 days. Assume one API request per task with 4,000 uncached input tokens and 800 output tokens. Additional turns and retries add requests or tokens. These are budget assumptions, not client benchmark results.
Model: deepseek-v4.1-flash. Account group: Deepseek. Rates observed 2026-10-31; publisher references checked 2026-10-20. Context tiers are selected per request. The publisher comparison uses its off-peak period.
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 | deepseek-v4.1-flash |
| Requests or complete task samples | 1800 |
| Uncached input / output per sample | 4,000 / 800 tokens |
| Codimixa input / output, USD per 1M | $0.045 / $0.18 |
| Estimated Codimixa API total | $0.5832 |
| Estimated official API reference total | $1.944 |
Use local cost estimates as a guide.
OpenClaw can display usage and cost estimates when usage metadata and model prices are available. Compare those estimates with your account’s billing records; the local history is not an invoice.
Lower model spend without losing the task.
Choose a model that completes the required workflow, then apply its actual Codimixa input, output and cache rates. Rates start at 0.3× official API pricing; use the exact price rather than applying one multiplier to every model.
Set a budget before enabling repeated tasks.
Start with a short observation window and a small task list. Inspect the number of runs, retries and paid tool actions. Expand the schedule after its cost and results are predictable.
A FEW DETAILS
Before you continue
Is OpenClaw API usage the whole bill?
Your setup may also incur hosting and paid tool charges. Track those separately so a model price comparison does not hide other costs.
Why can a local estimate differ from my invoice?
The estimate depends on available usage metadata, configured prices and local history. Your API account records the applicable billing data.
Does 0.3× apply to my entire OpenClaw budget?
The advertised multiplier applies to matching model API unit rates starting at 0.3×. Hosting, paid tools and the amount of work your agent performs are separate.