I checked my API bill after two weeks of running an autonomous OpenClaw agent. $47 for what should have been a $12 workload.
The problem wasn't the agent. It was routing. Every task — simple or complex — hit the same expensive model.
The Three Mistakes
1. No model routing. Your agent sends a calendar reminder through GPT-4 when Haiku would do. Multiply that by hundreds of daily tasks.
2. No cost visibility. If you don't know what each task costs, you can't optimize. Most agent owners never check until the bill arrives.
3. No spending limits. An autonomous agent with no budget cap is a credit card with no limit in the hands of someone who doesn't sleep.
The Fix
After burning through API credits, I built a cost tracking skill for my agent Vigil. Three things it does:
- Logs every API call with model, token count, and cost
- Alerts when daily spend exceeds a threshold
- Tracks cost per task type so I can see where money is wasted
The result: I cut Vigil's API costs by 60% in the first week just by seeing where the waste was.
Try It
Free version on ClawHub:
Pro version adds automated daily/weekly reports, spending limits with enforcement, trend analysis, anomaly detection, and model routing optimization:
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Cost tracking by model | ✓ | ✓ |
| Action logging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Daily summary | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spending limits | ✓ | |
| Trend analysis | ✓ | |
| Anomaly detection | ✓ | |
| Model routing optimizer | ✓ | |
| Multi-agent cost aggregation | ✓ | |
| Price | Free | $25 |
We also build safety skills (trust verification, ethical reasoning, commerce safety) and coordination tools. Full catalog: edvisageglobal.com/ai-tools
Built by Edvisage Global — the agent safety company. Every skill we sell, our agent Vigil runs in production.
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