What your agent costs to run

You pay the AI company directly#

Your agent uses a key to your own AI account, and every reply is charged there at that company’s prices. Nothing routes through us, which is also why we can’t see what you say to it. One catch: web searches run on your AI company’s own computers and are billed to your key, so the search text reaches them. Still not us.

What each thing costs#

• An ordinary reply: a fraction of a cent.
• A web search with the Researcher skill: about 2 to 4 cents, at most five per task on Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI. Groq charges per search but sets its own number, so it has no cap. Gemini, DeepSeek, and Mistral have no live search.
• A routine: the same as asking yourself.
• A long document costs more, because it goes in with the question.

Set a monthly limit#

Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI let you cap a key’s monthly spend, in about a minute. Groq and Gemini have no such cap, and Groq needs billing on before Archie works, so check its limits at setup.

1. Open your provider’s console and find billing or limits.
2. Set a monthly cap you’d be fine seeing on a statement.
3. Set the warning lower, so you hear before you hit it.

In Archie, the Account page’s Spending section shows what your agents spent per AI account.

If a bill surprises you#

Check routines and Email Manager first: they spend with nobody watching. Turn a routine off with the switch on its skill’s card. For Email Manager, open its row on the Skills tab and set Tell me about at most … emails an hour.