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API usage & costs

This doc lists features that can invoke API keys and where their costs show up. It focuses on Moltbot features that can generate provider usage or paid API calls.

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Where costs show up (chat + CLI)

Per-session cost snapshot
  • /status shows the current session model, context usage, and last response tokens.
  • If the model uses API-key auth, /status also shows estimated cost for the last reply.
Per-message cost footer
  • /usage full appends a usage footer to every reply, including estimated cost (API-key only).
  • /usage tokens shows tokens only; OAuth flows hide dollar cost.
CLI usage windows (provider quotas)
  • moltbot status --usage and moltbot channels list show provider usage windows (quota snapshots, not per-message costs).
See Token use & costs for details and examples.

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How keys are discovered

Moltbot can pick up credentials from:
  • Auth profiles (per-agent, stored in auth-profiles.json).
  • Environment variables (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY, BRAVE_API_KEY, FIRECRAWL_API_KEY).
  • Config (models.providers.*.apiKey, tools.web.search.*, tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.*, memorySearch.*, talk.apiKey).
  • Skills (skills.entries.<name>.apiKey) which may export keys to the skill process env.

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Features that can spend keys

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1) Core model responses (chat + tools)

Every reply or tool call uses the current model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc). This is the primary source of usage and cost. See Models for pricing config and Token use & costs for display.

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2) Media understanding (audio/image/video)

Inbound media can be summarized/transcribed before the reply runs. This uses model/provider APIs.
  • Audio: OpenAI / Groq / Deepgram (now auto-enabled when keys exist).
  • Image: OpenAI / Anthropic / Google.
  • Video: Google.
See Media understanding. Semantic memory search uses embedding APIs when configured for remote providers:
  • memorySearch.provider = "openai" → OpenAI embeddings
  • memorySearch.provider = "gemini" → Gemini embeddings
  • Optional fallback to OpenAI if local embeddings fail
You can keep it local with memorySearch.provider = "local" (no API usage). See Memory.

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4) Web search tool (Brave / Perplexity via OpenRouter)

web_search uses API keys and may incur usage charges:
  • Brave Search API: BRAVE_API_KEY or tools.web.search.apiKey
  • Perplexity (via OpenRouter): PERPLEXITY_API_KEY or OPENROUTER_API_KEY
Brave free tier (generous):
  • 2,000 requests/month
  • 1 request/second
  • Credit card required for verification (no charge unless you upgrade)
See Web tools.

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5) Web fetch tool (Firecrawl)

web_fetch can call Firecrawl when an API key is present:
  • FIRECRAWL_API_KEY or tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.apiKey
If Firecrawl isn’t configured, the tool falls back to direct fetch + readability (no paid API). See Web tools.

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6) Provider usage snapshots (status/health)

Some status commands call provider usage endpoints to display quota windows or auth health. These are typically low-volume calls but still hit provider APIs:
  • moltbot status --usage
  • moltbot models status --json
See Models CLI.

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7) Compaction safeguard summarization

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

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8) Model scan / probe

moltbot models scan can probe OpenRouter models and uses OPENROUTER_API_KEY when probing is enabled. See Models CLI.

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9) Talk (speech)

Talk mode can invoke ElevenLabs when configured:
  • ELEVENLABS_API_KEY or talk.apiKey
See Talk mode.

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10) Skills (third-party APIs)

Skills can store apiKey in skills.entries.<name>.apiKey. If a skill uses that key for external APIs, it can incur costs according to the skill’s provider. See Skills.