LLM Cost Guard — Token Budget & Spend Monitor#

Track, budget, and alert on LLM API spending in real-time. Prevents runaway costs for AI agents, multi-user apps, and homelab automation.

What It Does#

• Real-time cost tracking — records every LLM call (tokens in/out, model, cost)
• Budget enforcement — blocks requests when daily/monthly budgets are exceeded
• Per-user quotas — free tier vs pro tier controls
• Daily spend reports — delivered via WhatsApp/Telegram/Discord
• Alerts — warns at 80% budget usage, blocks at 100%
• Multi-model pricing — OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, Ollama (Feb 2026 rates)

Quick Start#

After install, configure your daily budget:

text

set budget daily 5.00

Then register API calls via the tracker:

bash

# Log an LLM call
llm-cost-guard log --model gpt-4o --input-tokens 1500 --output-tokens 800 --user alice

# Check current spend
llm-cost-guard status

# View full report
llm-cost-guard report

Commands#

CommandDescriptionllm-cost-guard statusCurrent spend vs budgetllm-cost-guard reportFull breakdown by user/model/dayllm-cost-guard set-limit daily <USD>Set daily spend limitllm-cost-guard set-limit user <key> <USD>Set per-user limitllm-cost-guard resetReset counters (e.g., start of new period)llm-cost-guard watchLive tail of all LLM callsllm-cost-guard logRecord a manual LLM usage entry

Configuration#

json

{
  "dailyCostLimit": 5.00,
  "monthlyCostLimit": 50.00,
  "perUserDailyCostLimit": 1.00,
  "defaultModel": "gpt-4o-mini",
  "alertAt": 0.8,
  "alertChannel": "whatsapp",
  "dataPath": "~/.openclaw/workspace/llm-cost-guard-data.json"
}

Supported Models (Built-in Pricing)#

ProviderModelsOpenAIgpt-4o, gpt-4o-mini, gpt-4-turbo, gpt-3.5-turbo, o1, o1-mini, o3-miniAnthropicclaude-3-5-sonnet, claude-3-5-haiku, claude-3-opus, claude-sonnet-4, claude-haiku-4Groqllama-3.3-70b, llama-3.1-8b, mixtral-8x7b, gemma2-9bOllamaLocal models (free, $0 tracked)

OpenClaw Cron Integration#

The skill auto-installs a daily cron job to:

1. Send a morning spend summary
2. Alert if yesterday's spend exceeded budget
3. Reset daily counters at midnight UTC

bash

# Manually add cron
openclaw cron add "0 8 * * *" "llm-cost-guard report --send-to whatsapp"

Use Cases#

Homelab AI Automation#

You run multiple OpenClaw agents with different API budgets. This skill tracks each agent's spend independently and warns you before the bill arrives.

Multi-User Chatbot#

Users get a free daily quota (e.g., $0.50/day). This skill enforces it, returning a friendly 429 when exceeded.

Cost Audit#

Run llm-cost-guard report --period month to see your full monthly AI spend breakdown by model and user.

Data Storage#

All data stored locally at ~/.openclaw/workspace/llm-cost-guard-data.json. No external services. No telemetry.

Why Zero Dependencies?#

Every dependency is a potential VirusTotal flag, a supply chain risk, and a maintenance burden. This skill uses only Node.js stdlib and OpenClaw's built-in tools.

Source & Issues#

• Source: https://github.com/mariusfit/llm-token-budget
• Issues: https://github.com/mariusfit/llm-token-budget/issues
• Author: @mariusfit