---
summary: "Audit what can spend money, which keys are used, and how to view usage"
read_when:
  - You want to understand which features may call paid APIs
  - You need to audit keys, costs, and usage visibility
  - You're explaining /status or /usage cost reporting
title: "API usage and costs"
---

Map of OpenClaw features that can call paid provider APIs, where each reads its credentials, and where the resulting cost shows up.

## Where costs show up

**`/status`** (per-session snapshot)

- Shows the current session model, context usage, and last-response tokens.
- Adds an **estimated cost** for the last reply when OpenClaw has usage metadata and local pricing for the active model, including explicitly priced non-API-key providers such as Bedrock `aws-sdk` models.
- If the live session snapshot is sparse, `/status` recovers token/cache counters and the active model label from the latest transcript usage entry. Existing nonzero live values win over transcript data; a prompt-sized transcript total can still win when the stored total is missing or smaller.

**`/usage`** (per-message footer)

- `/usage full` appends a usage footer to every reply, including **estimated cost** when local pricing is configured and usage metadata is available.
- `/usage tokens` shows tokens only. Subscription-style OAuth/token and CLI runtimes show tokens only unless they supply compatible usage metadata plus an explicit local price.
- `/usage cost` prints a local cost summary; `/usage off` disables the footer.
- Gemini CLI note: both `stream-json` and legacy `json` output carry usage under `stats`. OpenClaw normalizes `stats.cached` into `cacheRead` and derives input tokens from `stats.input_tokens - stats.cached` when needed.

**Control UI → Usage** (cross-session analysis)

- Shows transcript-derived token and estimated-cost totals for the selected date range, with breakdowns by provider, model, agent, channel, and token type.
- Compares shorter calendar windows ending on the selected range end date. Missing dates count as zero-usage calendar days; they are not skipped to create a denser window.
- Labels the daily chart scale directly. A `√` badge means square-root compression is keeping low-usage days visible.
- These totals describe the available local session history, not a provider invoice or lifetime billing ledger. The UI warns when pricing is missing for some entries.

**CLI usage windows** (provider quotas, not per-message cost)

- `openclaw status --usage` and `openclaw channels list` show provider **usage windows** as `X% left`.
- Current usage-window providers: Anthropic, ClawRouter, DeepSeek, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, MiniMax, OpenAI (covers ChatGPT/Codex OAuth/token auth), Xiaomi, and z.ai. See [Models CLI](/cli/models) and [Channels CLI](/cli/channels) for the full provider/flag list.
- MiniMax's raw `usage_percent` / `usagePercent` fields report remaining quota, so OpenClaw inverts them; count-based fields win when present. If the response includes a `model_remains` array, OpenClaw picks the chat-model entry, derives the window label from timestamps when needed, and includes the model name in the plan label.
- Usage auth comes from provider-specific hooks when available, otherwise OpenClaw falls back to matching OAuth/API-key credentials from auth profiles, env, or config.

See [Token use and costs](/reference/token-use) for detailed examples.

<Note>
Anthropic has confirmed that Claude CLI reuse (including `claude -p`) is a sanctioned integration pattern unless it publishes a new policy. Anthropic does not expose a per-message dollar estimate, so `/usage full` cannot show cost for Claude CLI usage.
</Note>

## How keys are discovered

- **Auth profiles**: per-agent, stored in `auth-profiles.json`.
- **Environment variables**: for example `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `BRAVE_API_KEY`, `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY`.
- **Config**: `models.providers.*.apiKey`, `plugins.entries.*.config.webSearch.apiKey`, `plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.apiKey`, `agents.defaults.memorySearch.*`, `talk.providers.*.apiKey`.
- **Skills**: `skills.entries.<name>.apiKey`, which may export the key to the skill process env.

## Features that can spend keys

### Core model responses (chat + tools)

Every reply or tool call runs on the current model provider. This is the primary source of usage and cost, including subscription-style hosted plans that bill outside OpenClaw's local UI: OpenAI Codex, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio Coding Plan, MiniMax Coding Plan, Z.AI/GLM Coding Plan, and Anthropic's Claude-login path with Extra Usage enabled.

See [Models](/providers/models) for pricing config and [Token use and costs](/reference/token-use) for display.

### Media understanding (audio/image/video)

Inbound media can be summarized or transcribed via a provider API before the reply pipeline runs. Provider support is registered per plugin and changes as plugins are added; see [Media understanding](/nodes/media-understanding) for the current list and config.

### Image and video generation

`image_generate` and `video_generate` route to whichever configured provider is available. Image generation can infer an auth-backed provider default when `agents.defaults.imageGenerationModel` is unset; video generation requires an explicit `agents.defaults.videoGenerationModel` (for example `qwen/wan2.6-t2v`).

See [Image generation](/tools/image-generation) and [Video generation](/tools/video-generation) for the current provider list.

### Memory embeddings and semantic search

Semantic memory search uses embedding APIs when `agents.defaults.memorySearch.provider` names a remote adapter (for example `openai`, `gemini`, `voyage`, `mistral`, `deepinfra`, `github-copilot`, `amazon-bedrock`). `memorySearch.provider = "lmstudio"` or `"ollama"` runs against a local/self-hosted server and typically has no hosted billing. `memorySearch.provider = "local"` keeps everything on-device with no API usage. An optional `memorySearch.fallback` provider can cover local-embedding failures.

See [Memory](/concepts/memory).

### Web search tool

`web_search` can incur usage charges depending on the selected provider. Each provider reads its key from an env var first, then `plugins.entries.<id>.config.webSearch.apiKey`:

| Provider               | Env var(s)                                                                                                                                                             |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Brave Search           | `BRAVE_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                        |
| DuckDuckGo             | key-free; unofficial, HTML-based, no billing                                                                                                                           |
| Exa                    | `EXA_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                          |
| Firecrawl              | `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                    |
| Gemini (Google Search) | `GEMINI_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                       |
| Grok (xAI)             | xAI OAuth profile or `XAI_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                     |
| Kimi (Moonshot)        | `KIMI_API_KEY` or `MOONSHOT_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                   |
| MiniMax Search         | `MINIMAX_CODE_PLAN_KEY`, `MINIMAX_CODING_API_KEY`, `MINIMAX_OAUTH_TOKEN`, or `MINIMAX_API_KEY`                                                                         |
| Ollama Web Search      | key-free for a reachable signed-in local host; direct `https://ollama.com` search uses `OLLAMA_API_KEY`; auth-protected hosts reuse normal Ollama provider bearer auth |
| Parallel               | `PARALLEL_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                     |
| Perplexity Search API  | `PERPLEXITY_API_KEY` or `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`                                                                                                                           |
| SearXNG                | `SEARXNG_BASE_URL`; key-free/self-hosted, no hosted billing                                                                                                            |
| Tavily                 | `TAVILY_API_KEY`                                                                                                                                                       |

Legacy `tools.web.search.*` config paths still load through a compatibility shim but are no longer the recommended surface.

**Brave Search free credit**: each 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 a usage limit in the Brave dashboard to avoid unexpected charges.

See [Web tools](/tools/web).

### Web fetch tool (Firecrawl)

`web_fetch` can call Firecrawl with keyless starter access; add `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` (or `plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.apiKey`) for higher limits. If Firecrawl isn't configured, the tool falls back to direct fetch plus the bundled `web-readability` plugin (no paid API). Disable `plugins.entries.web-readability.enabled` to skip local Readability extraction.

See [Web tools](/tools/web).

### Provider usage snapshots (status/health)

`openclaw status --usage` and `openclaw models status --json` call provider usage endpoints to show quota windows or auth health. Calls are low-volume but still hit provider APIs.

See [Models CLI](/cli/models).

### Compaction safeguard summarization

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

See [Session management and compaction](/reference/session-management-compaction).

### Model scan / probe

`openclaw models scan` can probe OpenRouter models and uses `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` when probing is enabled.

See [Models CLI](/cli/models).

### Talk (speech)

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

See [Talk mode](/nodes/talk).

### Skills (third-party APIs)

Skills can store `apiKey` in `skills.entries.<name>.apiKey`. If a skill uses that key against an external API, cost follows the skill's provider.

See [Skills](/tools/skills).

## Related

- [Token use and costs](/reference/token-use)
- [Prompt caching](/reference/prompt-caching)
- [Usage tracking](/concepts/usage-tracking)