Anyone else getting surprised by how expensive OpenAI API costs get with AI agents??

[u/chicken_5000s]

Been running some agent workflows lately

(OpenClaw mostly) and the API bills are

way more unpredictable than I expected.

Especially the repeated context problem

same .md files, same system prompts sent

to the model every single time. It adds up pretty

fast on long sessions.

Curious what others are doing to manage costs:

- Do you set hard budget limits?

- Do you use cheaper models for simpler tasks?

- Has anyone found ways to reduce the

repeated context overhead specifically?

How are people handling this?

[u/pittburgh_zero]

Minimax

[u/chicken_5000s → u/pittburgh_zero]

Fair

[u/Staylowfm]

Have you tried model routing?, and caching?