Guides
OpenAI cost control
OpenAI API cost control for teams and solo developers
OpenAI-style API usage becomes expensive when teams share keys, agents retry, outputs grow long, or high-cost models are used for every request.
Use separate keys
Create different keys for production, staging, Codex, Claude-style clients, and experiments.
Apply pre-route limits
A gateway can reject a request before upstream cost is created when balance, budget, model policy, or output cap would be exceeded.
- Daily and monthly budgets
- Model allowlists
- Max output caps
- 402 stop at zero balance
Audit every deduction
Request-level logs make cost visible by key, model, token meters, status, and billed amount.
FAQ
Can I set a hard OpenAI API budget?
A gateway can enforce hard budgets per API key before sending requests upstream.
What is the fastest way to reduce API waste?
Set max output tokens and put expensive models behind allowlists.