Cost Optimization: Keep API Bills Under Control

#Understanding OpenClaw Costs

OpenClaw itself is free and open-source. The costs come from the LLM API providers, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, that power your agent's intelligence. Every time your agent processes a message, runs a heartbeat cycle, or executes a cron job, it sends tokens to the API and you pay for those tokens.

#What Costs Money

The heartbeat is typically the largest expense because it runs continuously, even when you are not interacting with the agent.

#Cost by Model

Understanding per-token pricing helps you make informed decisions:

#Strategy 1: Model Routing

The single most effective cost optimization is using different models for different tasks. There is no reason to use Claude Opus 4.6 for checking whether a reminder is due.

#Recommended Model Routing Configuration

{
  "model_routing": {
    "default": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217",
    "heartbeat": "claude-haiku-4-20260210",
    "quick_response": "claude-haiku-4-20260210",
    "complex_reasoning": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217",
    "code_generation": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217",
    "summarization": "claude-haiku-4-20260210",
    "creative_writing": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217"
  }
}

#Cost Impact of Model Routing

#Automatic Routing with Smart Escalation

OpenClaw can automatically determine when a cheaper model is insufficient and escalate:

{
  "model_routing": {
    "default": "claude-haiku-4-20260210",
    "smart_escalation": {
      "enabled": true,
      "escalation_model": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217",
      "escalation_triggers": [
        "complex_task_detected",
        "multi_step_reasoning",
        "code_generation",
        "long_form_writing",
        "user_requested"
      ],
      "max_escalations_per_hour": 10
    }
  }
}

With smart escalation, Haiku handles 80-90% of interactions, and Sonnet only activates when needed. This can cut costs by 60-70% compared to using Sonnet for everything.

#Strategy 2: Optimize the Heartbeat

The heartbeat is your biggest cost lever. See the Heartbeat & Cron Guide for detailed configuration.

#Quick Wins

Switch heartbeat to Haiku:

{
  "heartbeat": {
    "model": "claude-haiku-4-20260210"
  }
}

Savings: 80-95% of heartbeat costs.

Increase the interval:

{
  "heartbeat": {
    "interval_minutes": 30
  }
}

Savings: 50% (compared to 15-minute interval).

Set active hours:

{
  "heartbeat": {
    "active_hours": {
      "start": "08:00",
      "end": "22:00",
      "timezone": "America/New_York"
    },
    "interval_minutes": 15,
    "sleep_interval_minutes": 120
  }
}

Savings: 30-40% by reducing overnight cycles.

Combine all three optimizations:

Using Haiku, 30-minute intervals during active hours (8 AM - 10 PM), and 2-hour intervals overnight reduces heartbeat costs from ~$200/month (Opus, 10-min) to ~$3/month.

#Strategy 3: Limit Context Window Size

Every request includes conversation history (context). Longer context means more input tokens and higher costs. Configure maximum context to control this:

{
  "context": {
    "max_history_messages": 20,
    "max_context_tokens": 4096,
    "summarize_old_context": true,
    "summary_model": "claude-haiku-4-20260210"
  }
}

• max_history_messages: Keep only the last N messages in context
• max_context_tokens: Hard cap on context size in tokens
• summarize_old_context: When true, old messages are summarized rather than included verbatim
• summary_model: Use a cheap model for summarization

#Strategy 4: Set Spending Limits

#Provider-Level Limits

Set spending limits directly on each provider's dashboard:

• Anthropic: Console > Settings > Limits > Monthly spending limit
• OpenAI: Platform > Settings > Limits > Usage limit
• Google: Cloud Console > Billing > Budgets & alerts

#OpenClaw-Level Limits

Configure spending awareness in OpenClaw:

{
  "cost_management": {
    "daily_budget": 5.00,
    "monthly_budget": 50.00,
    "alert_at_percentage": 80,
    "action_on_limit": "downgrade_model",
    "downgrade_to": "claude-haiku-4-20260210",
    "notification_channel": "telegram"
  }
}

When the daily or monthly budget is approaching:

• At 80%: Send an alert to your notification channel
• At 100%: Downgrade to the cheapest model (Haiku) instead of stopping entirely

This ensures your agent keeps running but stops using expensive models when the budget is exhausted.

#Strategy 5: Optimize Cron Jobs

Each cron job is an API call. Review your cron jobs and optimize:

#Use Appropriate Models

#Reduce Frequency

Do you really need to check email every 15 minutes? Every hour is usually sufficient for most users.

#Consolidate Jobs

Instead of three separate morning cron jobs (email, calendar, weather), combine them into one:

Schedule: 0 8 * * *
Task: "Morning briefing: Check my unread emails, today's calendar,
and the weather forecast. Give me everything in one summary."

One API call instead of three.

#Pause Unnecessary Jobs

Review each job and ask: "Is this still providing value?" Pause or remove jobs that are not. There is no cron pause: pausing a job is disable, and the docs say to "Use openclaw automations enable <job-id> to resume scheduled runs."

#Strategy 6: Monitor Usage

You cannot optimize what you do not measure. Regularly check your usage:

#Daily Usage Report

There is no top-level openclaw usage command and no --last flag. openclaw gateway usage-cost will "Fetch usage-cost summaries from session logs", and the window is --days, which defaults to 30:

API Usage (Last 24 Hours)
=========================
Total tokens:    45,832
Estimated cost:  $1.23
Breakdown:
  Heartbeat:      12,400 tokens ($0.15)
  Conversations:  28,200 tokens ($0.89)
  Cron jobs:       5,232 tokens ($0.19)
By model:
  claude-haiku-4:     32,100 tokens ($0.32)
  claude-sonnet-4.6:  13,732 tokens ($0.97)

#Weekly Totals

There is no documented --trend flag. Widen the window instead, and add --all-agents to "Aggregate across all configured agents" or --agent <id> for one of them:

Daily Cost Trend (Last 7 Days):
  Mon: $1.45  ████████████████
  Tue: $0.98  ███████████
  Wed: $2.31  █████████████████████████
  Thu: $1.12  ████████████
  Fri: $0.87  ██████████
  Sat: $0.43  █████
  Sun: $0.52  ██████
Average: $1.10/day
Projected monthly: $33.00

#Set Up Usage Alerts

There is no openclaw config edit. Ask the CLI where the live file is: openclaw config file "Prints the active config file path", and you open that path in your editor.

{
  "cost_management": {
    "alerts": [
      {
        "type": "daily_spend",
        "threshold": 3.00,
        "channel": "telegram",
        "message": "Daily spending exceeded $3. Current: {amount}"
      },
      {
        "type": "unusual_spike",
        "threshold_multiplier": 3.0,
        "channel": "telegram",
        "message": "Unusual usage spike detected: {details}"
      }
    ]
  }
}

#Strategy 7: Use Free and Cheaper Providers

#Google Gemini Free Tier

Gemini 3 Flash has a generous free tier that covers many heartbeat and lightweight tasks:

• 15 requests per minute
• 1 million tokens per minute
• 1,500 requests per day

Configure Gemini as your heartbeat model:

{
  "heartbeat": {
    "model": "gemini-3-flash"
  },
  "providers": {
    "google": {
      "api_key": "your-key",
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

#Mix Providers for Cost Optimization

{
  "model_routing": {
    "heartbeat": "gemini-3-flash",
    "quick_response": "gpt-5.2",
    "default": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217",
    "complex_reasoning": "claude-sonnet-4-6-20260217"
  }
}

This uses the cheapest provider for each task category, potentially reducing costs by 50-70%.

#Monthly Cost Estimates by Use Case

#Light Personal Use ($5-15/month)

• Haiku default model
• 30-minute heartbeat with active hours
• 2-3 cron jobs
• 10-20 messages per day

#Moderate Personal Use ($15-40/month)

• Sonnet 4.6 default, Haiku 4 heartbeat
• 15-minute heartbeat with active hours
• 5-10 cron jobs
• 30-50 messages per day

#Heavy / Professional Use ($40-100/month)

• Sonnet 4.6 default, Opus 4.6 for complex tasks
• 10-minute heartbeat
• 10+ cron jobs
• 100+ messages per day

#Unoptimized ($200-500/month)

• Opus 4.6 for everything
• 10-minute heartbeat, 24/7
• No active hours
• No model routing

#Cost Optimization Checklist

• Heartbeat uses Haiku 4 or Gemini 3 Flash (not Sonnet or Opus)
• Heartbeat interval is 15 minutes or more
• Active hours are configured to reduce overnight cycles
• Model routing is configured for different task types
• Smart escalation is enabled
• Context window size is limited
• Spending limits are set on provider dashboards
• OpenClaw cost alerts are configured
• Cron jobs use appropriate models (Haiku 4 for simple tasks)
• Unnecessary cron jobs are paused or removed
• Usage is monitored weekly
• Consolidated cron jobs where possible

#Next Steps

• Heartbeat & Cron Configuration: detailed heartbeat tuning
• API Key Setup: configure multiple providers for cost optimization
• Understanding Skills: skills affect cost through API usage
• Troubleshooting: when cost limits cause unexpected behavior