OpenClaw Cost Management: Stop Your AI Agent From Burning Money

The Hidden Cost Problem

Most OpenClaw users have no idea what their agent is spending on inference. You set it up, it works, and then a month later you get a $300 API bill and wonder what happened.

The problem isn't that AI inference is expensive — it's that nobody's watching the meter.

A single runaway cron job can burn $50 overnight. Using Claude Opus for tasks that GPT-4o Mini could handle costs 100x more per token. A bloated context window means you're paying to re-process the same 100K tokens on every message.

This guide covers how to understand, track, and optimize your OpenClaw spending.

What You're Actually Paying For

Every message your agent processes has a cost based on two factors:

Here's what the major models cost as of February 2026:

The takeaway: Claude Opus output costs 187x more than Gemini Flash. If you're using Opus for checking the weather, you're lighting money on fire.

The 5 Most Common Cost Wastes

1. Wrong Model for the Job

This is the #1 waste. Your agent uses one model for everything — including tasks that don't need premium intelligence.

Examples of mismatch:

The fix: Configure model routing in your OpenClaw config or use the default_model setting wisely. Many users run Sonnet as default and haven't considered that 60-80% of their tasks could use Mini or Flash.

2. Context Window Bloat

Every message your agent processes includes the entire context: system prompt, AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, MEMORY.md, loaded skills, and conversation history. If your MEMORY.md is 10,000 tokens and you have 8 skills loaded, that's potentially 20,000+ tokens sent with *every single message*.

Quick check — how big is your context?

# Check your workspace files
wc -c AGENTS.md SOUL.md MEMORY.md USER.md TOOLS.md 2>/dev/null
# Rough token estimate: divide total bytes by 4

If your total workspace files exceed 15KB, you're paying significant overhead on every message.

The fix:

3. Runaway Loops

Cron jobs and automated tasks can go haywire. A heartbeat check running every 5 minutes with a verbose skill that generates 500+ tokens per run = 144 calls/day × 500 tokens = 72,000 tokens/day. With Sonnet, that's roughly $1/day just for heartbeats.

Common culprits:

The fix:

4. Duplicate Processing

Re-processing the same information repeatedly. Common when:

5. Tool Call Overhead

Each tool call adds tokens — the tool descriptions, parameters, and results. If your agent makes 10 tool calls per task when 3 would suffice, you're paying for the overhead.

How to Track Your Spending

Method 1: Check Your API Provider Dashboard

This gives you the ground truth but no breakdown by task.

Method 2: Estimate from Activity

Rough formula:

Daily cost ≈ (messages/day × avg_context_tokens × input_price) 
           + (messages/day × avg_output_tokens × output_price)

For a typical Sonnet user doing 50 messages/day with 10K context:

Switch to GPT-4o Mini for 80% of those tasks:

Method 3: Use Cost Guardian

Cost Guardian (part of Milo Essentials) monitors your spending automatically, identifies waste patterns, and suggests optimizations. It tracks which models you're using, estimates costs, and alerts you when spending exceeds your budget.

Budget Management Strategies

Set a Monthly Budget

Pick a number you're comfortable with and work backwards:

Use Model Tiers

Configure different models for different task types:

# Conceptual config — actual implementation varies
models:
  simple: gpt-4o-mini        # Lookups, formatting, quick answers
  default: claude-sonnet-4-20250514   # Most tasks
  complex: claude-opus-4-0      # Deep reasoning, long code generation

Schedule Expensive Tasks

Instead of running analytics in real-time, batch them:

The ROI Calculation

Your agent isn't just a cost — it's an investment. The question isn't "how do I spend $0?" It's "am I getting value for what I spend?"

High-value uses (worth premium models):

Low-value uses (switch to cheap models):

Tools for Cost Control

Summary

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*Get Milo Essentials — 5 skills including Cost Guardian →*