Skip to main content

​
API usage & costs

This doc lists features that can invoke API keys and where their costs show up. It focuses on OpenClaw features that can generate provider usage or paid API calls.

​
Where costs show up (chat + CLI)

Per-session cost snapshot
  • /status shows the current session model, context usage, and last response tokens.
  • If the model uses API-key auth, /status also shows estimated cost for the last reply.
Per-message cost footer
  • /usage full appends a usage footer to every reply, including estimated cost (API-key only).
  • /usage tokens shows tokens only; subscription-style OAuth, legacy token, and CLI flows hide dollar cost.
Anthropic note: starting April 4, 2026 at 12:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM BST, Anthropic says OpenClaw no longer uses included Claude subscription limits. Anthropic subscription-auth traffic in OpenClaw now requires Extra Usage billed separately from the subscription, but Anthropic does not expose a per-message dollar estimate that OpenClaw can show in /usage full. CLI usage windows (provider quotas)
  • openclaw status --usage and openclaw channels list show provider usage windows (quota snapshots, not per-message costs).
See Token use & costs for details and examples.

​
How keys are discovered

OpenClaw can pick up credentials from:
  • Auth profiles (per-agent, stored in auth-profiles.json).
  • Environment variables (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY, BRAVE_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY).
  • Config (models.providers.*.apiKey, tools.web.search.*, tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.*, memorySearch.*, talk.providers.*.apiKey).
  • Skills (skills.entries.<name>.apiKey) which may export keys to the skill process env.

​
Features that can spend keys

​
1) Core model responses (chat + tools)

Every reply or tool call uses the current model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc). This is the primary source of usage and cost. This also includes subscription-style hosted providers that still bill outside OpenClaw’s local UI, such as OpenAI Codex, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio Coding Plan, MiniMax Coding Plan, Z.AI / GLM Coding Plan, and Anthropic subscription auth with Extra Usage enabled. See Models for pricing config and Token use & costs for display.

​
2) Media understanding (audio/image/video)

Inbound media can be summarized/transcribed before the reply runs. This uses model/provider APIs.
  • Audio: OpenAI / Groq / Deepgram (now auto-enabled when keys exist).
  • Image: OpenAI / Anthropic / Google.
  • Video: Google.
See Media understanding. Semantic memory search uses embedding APIs when configured for remote providers:
  • memorySearch.provider = "openai" → OpenAI embeddings
  • memorySearch.provider = "gemini" → Gemini embeddings
  • memorySearch.provider = "voyage" → Voyage embeddings
  • memorySearch.provider = "mistral" → Mistral embeddings
  • memorySearch.provider = "ollama" → Ollama embeddings (local/self-hosted; typically no hosted API billing)
  • Optional fallback to a remote provider if local embeddings fail
You can keep it local with memorySearch.provider = "local" (no API usage). See Memory.

​
4) Web search tool

web_search may incur usage charges depending on your provider:
  • Brave Search API: BRAVE_API_KEY or plugins.entries.brave.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Exa: EXA_API_KEY or plugins.entries.exa.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Firecrawl: FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Gemini (Google Search): GEMINI_API_KEY or plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Grok (xAI): XAI_API_KEY or plugins.entries.xai.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Kimi (Moonshot): KIMI_API_KEY, MOONSHOT_API_KEY, or plugins.entries.moonshot.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Ollama Web Search: key-free, but requires a reachable Ollama host plus ollama signin
  • Perplexity Search API: PERPLEXITY_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, or plugins.entries.perplexity.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • Tavily: TAVILY_API_KEY or plugins.entries.tavily.config.webSearch.apiKey
  • DuckDuckGo: key-free fallback (no API billing, but unofficial and HTML-based)
Legacy tools.web.search.* provider paths still load through the temporary compatibility shim, but they are no longer the recommended config surface. Brave Search free credit: Each Brave plan includes $5/month in renewing free credit. The Search plan costs $5 per 1,000 requests, so the credit covers 1,000 requests/month at no charge. Set your usage limit in the Brave dashboard to avoid unexpected charges. See Web tools.

​
5) Web fetch tool (Firecrawl)

web_fetch can call Firecrawl when an API key is present:
  • FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.apiKey
If Firecrawl isn’t configured, the tool falls back to direct fetch + readability (no paid API). See Web tools.

​
6) Provider usage snapshots (status/health)

Some status commands call provider usage endpoints to display quota windows or auth health. These are typically low-volume calls but still hit provider APIs:
  • openclaw status --usage
  • openclaw models status --json
See Models CLI.

​
7) Compaction safeguard summarization

The compaction safeguard can summarize session history using the current model, which invokes provider APIs when it runs. See Session management + compaction.

​
8) Model scan / probe

openclaw models scan can probe OpenRouter models and uses OPENROUTER_API_KEY when probing is enabled. See Models CLI.

​
9) Talk (speech)

Talk mode can invoke ElevenLabs when configured:
  • ELEVENLABS_API_KEY or talk.providers.elevenlabs.apiKey
See Talk mode.

​
10) Skills (third-party APIs)

Skills can store apiKey in skills.entries.<name>.apiKey. If a skill uses that key for external APIs, it can incur costs according to the skill’s provider. See Skills.