API Cost Estimator

Plan your AI budget effectively. Estimate costs based on model choice and usage intensity.

2 hours
Estimated Cost
$2.70/mo
~$0.09 per day
Model:Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input Price:$3/M
Output Price:$15/M
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Value Proposition

Even with heavy usage, OpenClaw costs a fraction of a human assistant ($2000+/mo). You save over $1997 monthly.

Understanding AI Agent Costs

Running an autonomous agent like OpenClaw involves continuous API calls to Large Language Models (LLMs). The cost depends on three main factors:

  1. Model Selection: Claude Haiku is extremely cheap ($1/M tokens) and great for simple tasks. Claude Opus is expensive ($25/M output) but necessary for complex reasoning. Claude Sonnet 4.5 offers the best balance.
  2. Context Window: As your agent "remembers" more of the conversation (Long Term Memory), it needs to re-read previous messages, increasing Input Token usage.
  3. Task Complexity: Coding and research tasks require the agent to think more and output longer responses, increasing Output Token usage.

How to Optimize Costs

  • Use Claude Haiku for routine monitoring and simple notifications.
  • Enable Session Compaction in OpenClaw settings to summarize old memories.
  • Use Claude Sonnet for the majority of coding and writing tasks.