Cost Management

OpenClaw's default configuration sends everything to one model, includes full conversation history, and heartbeats fire every 30 minutes. Without tuning, active use can cost $300-750/month. This guide covers what drives costs, how to control them, and real strategies that have achieved up to 97% cost reductions.

Real Horror Stories

These are documented incidents, not hypotheticals:

$3,600/month — Federico Viticci's "Navi" assistant consumed 180M Anthropic tokens in one month
$20 overnight — Benjamin De Kraker's heartbeat drained his entire balance checking "is it daytime yet?" every 30 minutes at $0.75/check
$200/day — An automated task stuck in an infinite loop, churning tokens while accomplishing nothing
$8 per 30 min — Processing Moltbook browsing content, adding up to $380+/day

Where Does the Money Go?

Cost Breakdown by Component

Heartbeat Costs

The heartbeat is the biggest silent cost driver. Each heartbeat sends the entire context window to the API:

Model	Cost per Heartbeat (~120K tokens)	Monthly (48/day)
Claude Opus 4.5	~$0.75	~$1,080
Claude Sonnet 4.5	~$0.45	~$648
Claude Haiku	~$0.15	~$216
Gemini 2.5 Flash	~$0.05	~$72
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	~$0.01	~$14
Local (Ollama)	$0.00	$0

"Using Opus for a heartbeat is like hiring a lawyer to check your mailbox."

Context Accumulation

Every request sends the full conversation history. One user's session grew to 1.4 MB / 100K tokens of pure overhead. System prompts alone are 5,000-10,000 tokens and are resent with every API call.

What Causes Runaway Costs

Cause	Impact	Example
Infinite loops	Tokens burn on repeated failures	Tool validation fails, error appended to context, model retries endlessly
Context snowball	Cost per request grows over time	Session at 56-58% of 400K window means 200K+ cached tokens per query
Wrong model for task	60x overpayment	Opus for heartbeat vs. Flash-Lite
Thinking mode	10-50x token explosion	Extended reasoning on simple tasks
No spending limits	Unpredictable bills	Overnight drain with no caps configured
Large tool outputs	Massive context per loop	1M file paths sent with full history on every iteration

Optimization Strategies

1. Model Routing (Biggest Impact)

Use different models for different tasks. The cost difference between Opus and Flash-Lite is 60x.

Task Type	Recommended Model	Cost/1M Tokens	Notes
Heartbeat checks	Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	$0.50	No quality difference for simple checks
Simple tasks	Gemini 3 Flash	$0.15	Quick lookups, status checks
Long context	Kimi K2.5	$0.50	Large document handling
Coding	Gemini 3 Pro	$1.25	Mid-tier reasoning
Quick responses	Claude Haiku	$1.00/$5.00	90% of Sonnet quality at 1/3 price
Mid-tier general	Claude Sonnet	$3.00/$15.00	Good balance
Complex reasoning	Claude Opus 4.5	$5.00/$25.00	Reserve for complex tasks only
Budget alternative	DeepSeek V3.2	$0.53	60x cheaper than Opus

Configure hybrid routing:

~/.openclaw/config.yml
brain:
  provider: "anthropic"
  model: "claude-sonnet-4"

  # Use local model for heartbeat
  heartbeat_override:
    provider: "local"
    local:
      endpoint: "http://localhost:11434"
      model: "qwen3:14b"
      type: "ollama"

2. Context Window Management

Strategy	How	Impact
Start fresh sessions	Use `/new` or `/reset` regularly	Prevents context snowball
Compact context	Use `/compact` to summarize old messages	Frees window space
Limit context size	`openclaw config set max_context_tokens 8000`	Per-session cost dropped from $0.40 to $0.05
Limit response size	`openclaw config set max_tokens_per_request 4000`	Prevents verbose responses
Daily auto-reset	Default 4:00 AM local time	Creates fresh session automatically

3. Heartbeat Tuning

Configure active hours to stop overnight token drain:

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
{
  "heartbeat": {
    "every": "1h",
    "activeHours": {
      "start": "08:00",
      "end": "22:00"
    }
  }
}

Setting	Cost Impact
Increase interval from 30m to 1h	-50% heartbeat cost
Increase interval from 30m to 2h	-75% heartbeat cost
Set active hours (14h/day vs 24h)	-42% heartbeat cost
Use local model for heartbeat	-100% heartbeat cost
Set to `0m`	Disables heartbeats entirely

4. Disable Thinking Mode for Routine Tasks

Thinking/reasoning mode can increase token usage by 10-50x. Disable it for routine tasks:

~/.config/openclaw/config.json5
{
  "thinking": "disabled"
}

5. Leverage Prompt Caching

Anthropic prompt caching charges cache hits at only 10% of normal cost:

OpenClaw automatically applies cacheRetention: "short" (5-minute cache)
System prompts (5K-10K tokens) only charged once during cache validity
High-frequency users save 30-50% with caching
Extend with cacheRetention: "long" in model config

6. Use Existing Subscriptions (Zero Additional Cost)

If you already pay for a subscription, connect it to OpenClaw with no additional API costs:

Subscription	Monthly Cost	How to Connect
Claude Pro	$20/month	Authenticate via claude-cli
Claude Max	$100/month	Same method, higher limits
ChatGPT Plus	$20/month	Connect API key
Google One AI Premium	$20/month	Connect API key

During onboarding, select "Anthropic" as your provider, then choose "Claude Code CLI" as the auth method to use your existing subscription.

Budget Controls

Set Spending Limits

# OpenClaw built-in limits
openclaw config set daily_budget_usd 5.00
openclaw config set monthly_budget_usd 50.00

Provider-Level Alerts

Provider	How	Recommendation
Anthropic	Dashboard spending alerts	Set alerts at 50%, 75%, 90% of budget
OpenAI	Hard monthly spending caps	Configure directly in dashboard
OpenRouter	Built-in spending tracking	Monitor across all routed models

Model Failover Chain

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
{
  "models": {
    "primary": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4",
    "fallback": "anthropic/claude-haiku",
    "complex": "anthropic/claude-opus-4.5"
  }
}

Real Cost Data

Monthly Spending by Usage Pattern

Usage Pattern	Monthly Cost	Description
Free / Minimal	$0-8	Local models (Ollama) or existing subscription
Light / Casual	$10-30	Few commands per day, basic automation
Moderate	$30-70	Regular file tasks, research, moderate chat
Power User	$70-200	Constant automation, long sessions
Heavy / Always-On	$300-750	Full proactive assistant, multiple integrations
Enterprise / Opus	$500-5,000	Full-time Opus agent, heavy tool usage

The median: 90% of users spend under $12/day, and the average developer spends roughly $100-200/month.

Additional Costs

Component	Cost	Notes
OpenClaw software	$0	MIT open source
Local hardware	$0	Your own machine
VPS hosting	$5-20/month	Optional, for always-on
API keys	Variable	See usage patterns above

The $1,200 to $36 Case Study

A documented case achieved a 97% cost reduction by combining five changes:

Change	Effect
1. Local search (QMDskill with BM25 + vector)	Token usage dropped 95%
2. Session context reduction (50KB to 8KB)	Per-session cost: $0.40 to $0.05
3. Free web search via Exa AI	Eliminated paid search tokens
4. Automatic model routing	Right model for each task
5. Local heartbeat handling	Eliminated recurring paid heartbeats

These reductions compound multiplicatively — $1,200/month became $36/month.

Monitoring Tools

Built-in

Command	What It Shows
`/status`	Agent reachability, context usage, current model
`/usage full`	Token usage for every response

Third-Party Dashboards

Tool	Features
Clawalytics	Real-time spending dashboard, per-agent breakdowns, daily cost charts, suspicious activity alerts
ClawWatcher	Real-time token usage, cost per model, skills/actions tracking
claw-dash	Sessions, tokens (24h), costs, model info, cron jobs, system health gauges
openclaw-dashboard	Browser notifications for usage limits, cost analysis by model
OpenClaw Cost Calculator	Pre-deployment cost estimation

OpenRouter Auto-Routing

For centralized model routing, OpenRouter can automatically select the most cost-effective model per prompt using openrouter/openrouter/auto — single API key for all providers with built-in cost tracking.

Quick-Start: Cut Costs Today

If you're spending too much right now, apply these changes immediately:

Switch heartbeat to a cheap model — biggest single savings
Set active hours — stop overnight token drain
Set daily and monthly budget limits — prevent surprises
Use /compact regularly — prevent context snowball
Disable thinking mode for routine tasks

~/.openclaw/config.yml — Minimum cost configuration
brain:
  provider: "anthropic"
  model: "claude-sonnet-4"

  heartbeat_override:
    provider: "local"
    local:
      endpoint: "http://localhost:11434"
      model: "llama3.1:8b"
      type: "ollama"

~/.openclaw/openclaw.json — Budget limits
{
  "heartbeat": {
    "every": "1h",
    "activeHours": {
      "start": "08:00",
      "end": "22:00"
    }
  }
}

openclaw config set daily_budget_usd 5.00
openclaw config set monthly_budget_usd 50.00

Where Does the Money Go?​

Cost Breakdown by Component​

Heartbeat Costs​

Context Accumulation​

What Causes Runaway Costs​

Optimization Strategies​

1. Model Routing (Biggest Impact)​

2. Context Window Management​

3. Heartbeat Tuning​

4. Disable Thinking Mode for Routine Tasks​

5. Leverage Prompt Caching​

6. Use Existing Subscriptions (Zero Additional Cost)​

Budget Controls​

Set Spending Limits​

Provider-Level Alerts​

Model Failover Chain​

Real Cost Data​

Monthly Spending by Usage Pattern​

Additional Costs​

The $1,200 to $36 Case Study​

Monitoring Tools​

Built-in​

Third-Party Dashboards​

OpenRouter Auto-Routing​

Quick-Start: Cut Costs Today​

See Also​