Agent Cost Monitor — Know What Your Agents Cost

Track token usage, costs, and efficiency across all your OpenClaw agents in real-time. Get alerts before you blow your budget.

The Problem

Running multiple agents is powerful — but expensive if you're not watching:

• - Which agent is burning the most tokens?
• Are heartbeats wasting money on expensive models?
• Is caching actually saving you anything?
• When will you hit your weekly rate limit?

What This Skill Does

When triggered (via cron or manually), the agent:

1. 1. Checks session_status for each agent
2. Calculates per-agent and total costs
3. Compares against budget thresholds
4. Sends alerts if limits are approaching
5. Suggests optimization moves

Usage

Ask your monitoring agent (or any agent with this skill):

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Automated Daily Report (Cron)

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Cost Report Format

When generating a report, use this structure:

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Model Cost Reference

Use these rates for estimation (as of 2026):

Anthropic (Claude OAuth / API)

Model	Input/1M	Output/1M	Cache Read/1M	Cache Write/1M
Opus 4.6	$5.00	$25.00	$0.50	$6.25
Sonnet 4.5

$3.00 | $15.00 | $0.30 | $3.75 |

Free Options

Model	Cost	Use For
Ollama (local)	$0	Heartbeats, simple tasks
Gemini OAuth

$0* | Fallback (rate limited) |

*Free tier with rate limits

Optimization Playbook

Quick Wins (Do These First)

1. 1. Heartbeats on Ollama

{ "heartbeat": { "model": "ollama/llama3.2:3b" } }

1. 2. Haiku Cache Retention Off

{ "anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5": { "params": { "cacheRetention": "none" } } }

1. 3. Context Pruning

{ "contextPruning": { "mode": "cache-ttl", "ttl": "5m" } }

1. 4. Opus/Sonnet Cache Retention Long

{ "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": { "params": { "cacheRetention": "long" } } }

Model Tiering (Biggest Impact)

Session Management

• - Daily reset: Sessions auto-clear at a set hour (reduces token accumulation)

{ "session": { "reset": { "mode": "daily", "atHour": 4, "idleMinutes": 45 } } }

• - Memory flush: Save important context before compaction

Alert Thresholds

Configure in your monitoring agent's memory:

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Integration with DevOps Agent

If you have a DevOps/monitoring agent (e.g. your DevOps agent), add to its AGENTS.md:

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FAQ

Q: Does this skill make API calls?
A: No. It uses OpenClaw's built-in session_status tool. No external APIs, no additional costs.

Q: How accurate are cost estimates?
A: Based on published model pricing. Actual costs may vary with caching hits. Estimates are conservative (slightly high).

Q: Can I track costs per conversation?
A: Not directly. Costs are tracked per session. Use sessions_list to see per-session token counts.

Q: Works with non-Anthropic models?
A: Yes. Token counts work for all providers. Cost estimation requires known pricing (add custom rates in the cost reference section).

Changelog

v1.1.0

• - Generalized all agent names in examples
• No specific setup references

v1.0.0

• - Initial release