Free browser tool
Agent Budget Calculator
Estimate daily and monthly AI agent spend from task volume, token prices, fixed per-task API costs, and a safety margin.
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Runs in your browser. No signup, no backend, no submitted data leaves the page.
Updated
2026-07-06
Key facts
What this page establishes
- This calculator converts expected task volume into daily and monthly budget envelopes.
- The formula is token cost plus fixed per-task cost, multiplied by task count and safety margin.
- Recommended caps are starting points for policy review, not guarantees that an agent cannot overspend.
- For live systems, enforce the resulting caps at the payment tool boundary, not only in a dashboard.
Per-task base cost
$0.00
Recommended per-task cap
$0.00
Daily budget
$0.00
Monthly budget
$0.00
Formula and assumptions
The calculator estimates base task cost as input-token cost plus output-token cost plus any fixed per-task API or payment cost. Daily budget equals tasks per day multiplied by base task cost and the safety margin. Monthly budget uses a 30.44-day average month.
Use the daily cap in the spend-policy generator, then enforce the result through the controls described in Spend Controls. A dashboard-only limit is not enough for an agent that can call payment tools autonomously.
FAQ
What is a good first daily cap for an AI agent?
A good first cap is usually the expected daily cost plus a safety margin, rounded to a value that the operator is willing to lose during a malfunction or retry loop.
Should token costs and API costs be budgeted separately?
Yes. Token prices model inference spend, while fixed API or payment costs capture per-task tool calls, data lookups, x402 resources, or merchant charges.
Why include a safety margin?
Autonomous tasks have retries, partial failures, longer-than-expected prompts, and tool loops. The safety margin turns the estimate into an operating cap rather than a perfect-world average.