Complete Cost Guide

Clawdbot Pricing

Clawdbot is free and open-source. Your costs come from AI APIs and optional VPS hosting.

Most users spend $5-25/month total. Here's the complete breakdown.

πŸ†“Clawdbot Software
$0

100% free, open-source, MIT license. No hidden fees.

☁️VPS Hosting
$4-6/mo

Optional. Run 24/7 on a cloud server. Or free on your computer.

πŸ€–AI API Costs
$0-50/mo

Pay per use. Free with local models (Ollama).

What Are Tokens?

AI APIs charge by tokensβ€”roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words. Both your message (input) and the AI's response (output) use tokens.

Rule of Thumb1,000 tokens β‰ˆ 750 words β‰ˆ 1.5 pages
Typical ChatA message + response β‰ˆ 500-2,000 tokens
Daily Usage100 messages β‰ˆ 100K-300K tokens/day
Token Examples
TypeExampleTokens
Short questionWhat's the weather like?~20
Medium questionExplain how photosynthesis works~50
Detailed requestWrite a cover letter for...~100
Code reviewReview this 50-line function~500
Long documentSummarize this article~2,000
Full conversation10 back-and-forth messages~3,000-5,000

AI Model Pricing

Prices per 1 million tokens. Updated January 2026.

ProviderModelInput (/1M)Output (/1M)ContextNotes
AnthropicClaude 4 Opus$15.00$75.00200KMost capable reasoning
AnthropicClaude 3.5 SonnetBest Value$3.00$15.00200KBest value for quality
AnthropicClaude 3.5 Haiku$0.80$4.00200KFast & cheap
OpenAIGPT-4o$2.50$10.00128KMultimodal flagship
OpenAIGPT-4o mini$0.15$0.60128KExtremely affordable
GoogleGemini 1.5 ProBest Value$1.25$5.001MMassive context window
GoogleGemini 1.5 Flash$0.075$0.301MBudget + huge context
LocalOllama (Any model)FreeFreeFreeVariesRun on your hardware

Flagship Models

Most capable, best for complex reasoning. Use sparingly.

Recommended Models

Great quality at reasonable cost. Best for daily use.

Budget Models

10-20x cheaper. Perfect for simple tasks.

Monthly Cost Estimates

Find your usage pattern and see what to expect.

🏠
Casual User
Personal use, occasional questions
$5-8/mo
Messages:~50-100/day
Model:Claude Haiku or GPT-4o mini
Hosting:Hetzner CX11
VPS:~$4
API:~$1-4
πŸ’Ό
Active User
Daily conversations, writing help
$10-25/mo
Messages:~200-500/day
Model:Claude Sonnet
Hosting:Hetzner CX11
VPS:~$4
API:~$6-21
πŸš€
Power User
Heavy usage, long conversations
$30-80/mo
Messages:~1000+/day
Model:Claude Sonnet / GPT-4o
Hosting:Hetzner CX21
VPS:~$6
API:~$24-74
πŸ”’
Local AI User
Privacy-focused, unlimited usage
$5-15/mo
Messages:Unlimited
Model:Ollama (Llama/Mistral)
Hosting:Contabo or Mac Mini
VPS:~$5-15
API:$0

VPS Pricing Comparison

Optional if running on your own computer. Required for 24/7 availability.

ProviderPlanPriceSpecs
HetznerTop PickCX11€3.79/mo2 vCPU, 2GB RAMLearn More
VultrTop PickCloud Compute$6/mo1 vCPU, 1GB RAMLearn More
ContaboTop PickCloud VPS S€4.99/mo4 vCPU, 8GB RAMLearn More
DigitalOceanBasic Droplet$6/mo1 vCPU, 1GB RAMLearn More
LinodeNanode$5/mo1 vCPU, 1GB RAMLearn More

Tips to Reduce Costs

🎯 Use Budget Models

Claude Haiku and GPT-4o mini are 10-20x cheaper than flagship models and handle 80% of tasks perfectly well.

πŸ”’ Go Local with Ollama

$0 API costs forever. Run Llama, Mistral, or other models locally. Great quality, complete privacy.

Setup Guide β†’
βš™οΈ Set Usage Limits

Configure spending alerts in your AI provider's dashboard. Set hard limits to avoid surprises.

🧹 Clear Context Regularly

Long conversations accumulate tokens. Start new chats for unrelated topics to reset context.

πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί Choose Hetzner

Hetzner offers the best specs for the price. €3.79/mo gets you more than $10 elsewhere.

🍎 Use Existing Hardware

Old Mac Mini or laptop? Perfect home server. $0 VPS cost, just electricity.

Mac Guide β†’

Free Tier Options

Try Clawdbot without spending anything.

Anthropic Free Credits
New accounts get $5 credit

Sign up at console.anthropic.com. $5 covers ~1,600 Claude Sonnet messages.

Get Credits β†’
Google Gemini Free Tier
Generous free API access

60 requests/minute free on Gemini Flash. More than enough for personal use.

Setup Guide β†’
Ollama (100% Free)
Run AI locally forever

No API costs, no limits, no account needed. Just your computer power.

Get Started β†’

Ready to Get Started?

Install Clawdbot for free. Only pay for what you useβ€”or use Ollama and pay nothing.