Managing costs
What your agent costs
How much a reply, a day and a month of using your agent costs, why some replies cost more than others, and where to see what you have spent.
Salts has no subscription. Every reply your agent writes is paid for from the credit in your OpenRouter account, and you pay only for what your agent actually uses. This page gives you a feel for what that comes to.
What you pay for
Models are paid by the token, and a token is roughly three quarters of a word. For every reply, you pay for:
- Everything the model reads. This is not just your latest message. It is the whole conversation so far, your custom instructions, and a description of every tool your agent has switched on.
- Everything the model writes. This is the reply itself, plus any thinking if Extended reasoning is on.
Reading is usually much cheaper per token than writing, but your agent reads far more than it writes. That is why a long conversation, or an agent with many apps connected, costs more per reply even when the reply is short.
Some examples
These are rough figures for a reply in a short conversation, with a few capabilities switched on. They are based on OpenRouter's prices at the time of writing, and you can check today's prices on openrouter.ai/models.
| Model | One everyday reply | 20 replies a day for a month |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Flash (ds), the model your agent starts with | about $0.0005 | about $0.30 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 (haiku) | about $0.0007 | about $0.40 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 (sonnet) | about $0.013 | about $8 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (opus) | about $0.026 | about $16 |
Model
DeepSeek V4 Flash (ds), the model your agent starts with
One everyday reply
about $0.0005
20 replies a day for a month
about $0.30
Model
Claude Haiku 5.5 (haiku)
One everyday reply
about $0.0007
20 replies a day for a month
about $0.40
Model
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (sonnet)
One everyday reply
about $0.013
20 replies a day for a month
about $8
Model
Claude Opus 5.5 (opus)
One everyday reply
about $0.026
20 replies a day for a month
about $16
The same reply can cost ten times as much in a conversation that has been going on for weeks, or with a large app such as Notion connected with every tool switched on. Images, voice notes and spreadsheet work use other models and are billed on top.
For most people, the $10 we recommend starting with lasts several months on the default model.
Where to see what you spent
- Under every reply. Each reply in your browser shows what it cost.
- On OpenRouter. The Activity page in your OpenRouter account lists every call your agent made, what it cost and which model it used.
- In Settings, for fleet agents. If your agent is part of a fleet and uses the Default fleet key, its Settings shows how much of this month's spending limit is left.
Keeping costs down
- Set a credit limit on your OpenRouter key, so your spending can never go past it. See Get an OpenRouter API key.
- Start a new conversation whenever you change the subject. See Chat session hygiene.
- Switch on only the capabilities and app tools you use. See Must read: Managing costs and MCP tools.
- Start with the default model, and only move to a stronger one when you need it. See Choose the right model.