Guides to AI costs

Practical guides to choosing models, estimating costs and running models yourself.

Guide6 Nov 2026
How to Cut Your AI API Bill in Half: 8 Tactics That Work
Prompt caching, batch jobs, model routing, shorter prompts and output, off-peak hours and long-prompt limits: eight ways to cut AI API costs, with numbers.
Guide6 Nov 2026
How to Get Your First AI API Key: OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and More
How to create an API key for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, xAI or DeepSeek, which have a free tier, how billing works, and how to keep your key safe.
Guide6 Nov 2026
AI Token Cost: What One Token Costs in November 2026
What an AI token costs today, per token and per 1M, on every current model: what a message, an email, a report and a book cost, and why prices differ so much.
Guide13 Oct 2026
Building Your First AI Chatbot: Model Choice, Code and Real Costs
Build your first AI chatbot with an API: which model to start with, a working code example, how conversation history drives cost, and what it really costs.
Guide13 Oct 2026
How AI Model Pricing Works: Tokens, Input and Output, Caching and Batch
What a token is, why output costs more than input, and how caching, batch discounts, long-prompt surcharges and off-peak rates change what you pay.
Guide2 Oct 2026
The Cheapest AI Models in 2026, Ranked by Price
The cheapest AI APIs ranked by price per 1M tokens: small, workhorse, frontier and open-weight models. Tables update automatically from verified prices.
Guide2 Oct 2026
How Much Does Hermes Agent Cost to Run? A Token Pricing Guide
Hermes Agent is free, but the tokens behind it are not. Monthly costs from under $2 to $150 depending on the model you connect, and how to cut the bill.
Guide2 Oct 2026
Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw: Which Self-Hosted AI Assistant Costs Less to Run?
Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw, the leading self-hosted AI assistants: features, chat apps, sandboxing and what each costs to run per month in API tokens.
Guide2 Oct 2026
OpenClaw Setup 101: Your Personal AI Agent
Install OpenClaw, connect a model with your own API key, add WhatsApp or Telegram, install skills and keep it secure, plus which models to use.
Guide2 Oct 2026
10 Powerful Ways to Use OpenClaw
Ten ways people use OpenClaw: inbox triage, code review, research, meeting prep, smart-home control and more, with what each costs to run in API tokens.
Guide24 Mar 2026
Qwen3.5-9B + Nemotron Nano 4B: Best Settings for OpenClaw
318 benchmarks to find the best settings for Qwen3.5-9B (agent) and Nemotron-3-Nano-4B (router) in OpenClaw via LM Studio, with copy-paste configs.

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