Why is my AI agent so expensive to run?

The usual cause is that your agent calls a premium model (Claude Opus 4.7 at $15/$75 per 1M tokens, GPT-5.5 at $5/$30) for every request — including trivial ones like simple Q&A, code formatting, or translation. For those tasks, Gemini Flash ($0.30/M output), DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.14/$0.28), or Claude Haiku ($5/M) would deliver the same quality at 15-250x lower cost. In a typical agent workload, about 80% of calls don't need the premium model. ClawRouters analyzes each call in 10ms and routes it to the cheapest capable model — typical users save 70-90% on their monthly bill.

How do I reduce OpenClaw AI API costs?

OpenClaw is OpenAI-compatible, so you can change its base_url to a smart routing proxy like ClawRouters. The proxy analyzes each call (coding vs formatting vs reasoning) and sends it to the cheapest model that can handle it. No code changes — just one config line in your openclaw.json. Typical OpenClaw users cut their token bill 70-90% without any loss in output quality. Pricing starts at $29/mo (Starter plan, 10M tokens included) or $99/mo (Pro, 20M tokens/month with up to 500K that can run on Opus).

ClawRouters vs OpenRouter — which is better for cost savings?

OpenRouter and LiteLLM give you multi-model access under one API key — but you still manually pick which model to call. That's why most developers default to the premium model and bleed money. ClawRouters is different: we automatically pick the cheapest capable model per task, in 10ms. OpenRouter solved access; ClawRouters solves cost. ClawRouters also adds features OpenRouter doesn't: per-end-user token tracking (for SaaS agent builders sharing keys with customers), auto top-up, BYOK fallback opt-in, and OpenClaw-native integration.

What's the cheapest model for coding agents in 2026?

For code formatting and simple edits: Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1/$5 per 1M) or DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.14/$0.28). For medium-complexity coding: Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3/$15), GPT-5.4 ($2.5/$15), Kimi K2.6 ($0.60/$4), or DeepSeek V4 Pro ($1.74/$3.48). Only escalate to Claude Opus 4.7 ($15/$75) or GPT-5.5 ($5/$30) for genuinely complex reasoning or architectural design. A smart router like ClawRouters makes this decision per-call automatically based on the task — you don't need to configure it by hand.

How does task-aware routing save money vs. just using one model?

Most AI agent workloads break down roughly as: 60% simple Q&A/translation/formatting, 25% medium coding/analysis, 15% complex reasoning. If you send all of them to Claude Opus ($75/M output), you pay full price for every call. If you task-route instead: 60% → Gemini Flash at $0.30/M (250x cheaper), 25% → Claude Haiku at $5/M (15x cheaper), 15% → Opus (no change). Blended savings ≈ 80-90% vs. Opus-everything, with no quality degradation. This is the math behind the 70-90% typical savings.

Is ClawRouters safe with my data?

Yes. ClawRouters is a routing proxy — we classify the task type (in 10ms, on our servers) to pick a model, then forward your request directly to the model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) over encrypted connections. We don't train on your data. We log minimal metadata (token counts, model used, timing) for usage dashboards, not prompt content beyond a 500-char snippet for classifier improvement which you can opt out of. BYOK keys are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.

How do I track per-customer API costs when I share my ClawRouters key across my SaaS users?

Pass a stable per-customer ID in the OpenAI SDK's 'user' parameter with every request. ClawRouters writes this to each usage log and surfaces aggregated per-end-user breakdowns in your dashboard — requests, cost, tokens, models used, first/last seen. This is built-in and included with every plan. It's essential for SaaS agent builders (e.g. an OpenClaw-based product) who share keys across customers and need to attribute cost back to each one.

LLM API Cost Calculator

Enter your monthly token usage and compare what each model would cost per month — GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen, GLM. Prices come straight from the ClawRouters production model registry, in USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens (millions)

Monthly output tokens (millions)

Presets:

Monthly cost per model

Monthly cost = input volume × input price + output volume × output price. Sorted cheapest first. Cheapest and most expensive rows are highlighted.

Model	Provider	Input $/1M	Output $/1M	Monthly cost
Qwen FlashCheapest	Alibaba Qwen	$0.1	$0.4	$9.00
DeepSeek V4 Flash	DeepSeek	$0.14	$0.28	$9.80
DeepSeek V4 Pro	DeepSeek	$0.435	$0.87	$30.45
Qwen Plus	Alibaba Qwen	$0.4	$1.2	$32.00
GPT-5 Mini	OpenAI	$0.25	$2	$32.50
Gemini 2.5 Flash	Google	$0.3	$2.5	$40.00
GLM-4 Plus (legacy)	Zhipu GLM	$0.5	$1.5	$40.00
Gemini 3 Flash	Google	$0.5	$3	$55.00
Kimi K2.5	Moonshot/Kimi	$0.6	$2.5	$55.00
Kimi K2.6	Moonshot/Kimi	$0.6	$4	$70.00
GPT-5.4 Mini	OpenAI	$0.75	$4.5	$82.50
Claude Haiku 4.5	Anthropic	$1	$5	$100.00
GLM-5.1	Zhipu GLM	$1.4	$4.4	$114.00
Qwen3 Max	Alibaba Qwen	$1.2	$6	$120.00
Gemini 2.5 Pro	Google	$1.25	$10	$162.50
GPT-5.2	OpenAI	$1.75	$14	$227.50
Gemini 3 Pro	Google	$2	$15	$250.00
GPT-5.4	OpenAI	$2.5	$15	$275.00
Claude Sonnet 4.6	Anthropic	$3	$15	$300.00
Claude Sonnet 4.5	Anthropic	$3	$15	$300.00
Claude Opus 4.8	Anthropic	$5	$25	$500.00
Claude Opus 4.7	Anthropic	$5	$25	$500.00
Claude Opus 4.5	Anthropic	$5	$25	$500.00
GPT-5.5Most expensive	OpenAI	$5	$30	$550.00

With ClawRouters

Instead of sending every request to one model, ClawRouters routes each call to the cheapest model capable of handling it. Below is an illustrative mix: 70% of traffic at the average price of the three cheapest models, 20% at the median model, 10% at the most expensive tier.

Estimated routed monthly cost

$89.29

vs. everything on GPT-5.5 ($550.00)

−84%

The mix above is illustrative, not a routing guarantee. Actual savings depend on your workload; typical users save 60-90%.

See ClawRouters Pricing Set Up in One Config Line

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I calculate LLM API cost?

LLM APIs bill per token: monthly cost = (input tokens ÷ 1M × input price per 1M) + (output tokens ÷ 1M × output price per 1M). This calculator multiplies your monthly input and output token volumes by each model's per-million-token prices and sums the two, so you can compare every model's monthly bill side by side.

Why are input and output tokens priced differently?

Output tokens are generated by the model and cost more compute to produce, so providers price them higher than input tokens — for most models in this table the output price is several times the input price. That means generation-heavy workloads (coding agents, writing) are dominated by output cost, while prompt-heavy workloads (RAG with large retrieved context) are dominated by input cost.

How does smart LLM routing save money?

A smart router analyzes each request and sends it to the cheapest model capable of handling it — simple Q&A and formatting go to budget models, and only genuinely hard tasks escalate to premium models. Because most real-world traffic is simple or medium complexity, the blended cost lands far below running everything on a single premium model. Actual savings depend on your workload; typical ClawRouters users save 60-90%.

Where do the prices in this calculator come from?

Prices come from the same model registry that powers ClawRouters routing in production, quoted in USD per 1 million tokens. When a provider changes pricing, the registry is updated and this calculator reflects it automatically — no separately maintained marketing numbers.