<quick_start> Check current spend:

cat ~/.claude/daily-cost.json 2>/dev/null || echo "No tracking yet"

Initialize tracking:

mkdir -p ~/.claude echo '{"date":"'$(date +%Y-%m-%d)'","spent":0,"budget_monthly":100,"budget_daily":5}' > ~/.claude/daily-cost.json

</quick_start>

<success_criteria>

• Daily cost tracking initialized at ~/.claude/daily-cost.json

• Budget alerts fire at 50% (info), 80% (warn), and 95% (block) thresholds

• Model routing applied: Haiku for search/classify, Sonnet for code, DeepSeek for bulk

• Cost-per-feature metric available via portfolio-artifact integration

• Monthly spend stays within configured budget ($100/mo default) </success_criteria>

Model Rates (Current)

Model Input/1M tokens Output/1M tokens Typical Use

Claude Opus 4.6 $5.00 $25.00 Architecture, complex reasoning

Claude Sonnet 4.6 $3.00 $15.00 Code generation, standard tasks

Claude Haiku 4.5 $1.00 $5.00 Search, classification, simple

DeepSeek V3 $0.27 $1.10 Bulk processing

GROQ Llama 3.3 70B $0.59 $0.79 Fast inference

Voyage Embeddings $0.10 — Embeddings

v1.1.0 pricing changes: Opus $15/$75 → $5/$25 (70% cheaper with Opus 4.6). Haiku $0.25/$1.25 → $1/$5 (Haiku 3 → 4.5, 4x more expensive). Sonnet $3/$15 unchanged (model upgraded 4.5 → 4.6).

Budget Configuration

~/.claude/daily-cost.json

{ "date": "2026-02-07", "spent": 2.40, "budget_monthly": 100, "budget_daily": 5, "alerts": { "info": 0.5, "warn": 0.8, "block": 0.95 } }

Alert Thresholds

Threshold % Budget Action

Info 50% Display: "50% of monthly budget used"

Warn 80% Yellow alert: "⚠️ 80% budget — consider model downgrade"

Block 95% Red alert: "🛑 95% budget — require explicit override to continue"

Cost Optimization Strategies

1. Model Routing (biggest impact)

Task Expensive Optimized Savings

File search Sonnet ($3/1M) Haiku ($1/1M) 67%

Code review Sonnet ($3/1M) Haiku ($1/1M) 67%

Classification Sonnet ($3/1M) Haiku ($1/1M) 67%

Bulk processing Sonnet ($3/1M) DeepSeek ($0.27/1M) 91%

Rule: If the task doesn't generate code, use Haiku. If it doesn't need Claude, use DeepSeek.

2. Context Management

• Keep SKILL.md files under 200 lines (progressive disclosure)

• Load reference files only when needed

• Use Explore agent with haiku model for codebase search

• Avoid reading entire files — use Grep to find specific lines

3. Task Batching

• Group related searches into one Explore agent call

• Use parallel subagents (haiku) instead of serial sonnet calls

• Combine file reads when possible

Tracking Commands

Daily Spend Check

cat ~/.claude/daily-cost.json | jq '{date, spent, remaining: (.budget_daily - .spent), pct: ((.spent / .budget_monthly) * 100 | floor)}'

Weekly Report

Aggregate daily logs

cat ~/.claude/cost-log.jsonl | jq -s 'group_by(.phase) | map({phase: .[0].phase, total: (map(.est_cost) | add), count: length})'

Monthly Summary

cat ~/.claude/cost-log.jsonl | jq -s '{ total: (map(.est_cost) | add), by_model: (group_by(.model) | map({model: .[0].model, cost: (map(.est_cost) | add)})), by_phase: (group_by(.phase) | map({phase: .[0].phase, cost: (map(.est_cost) | add)})) }'

Integration Points

System How

workflow-orchestrator Cost gate checks budget before workflows

subagent-teams Model selection uses cost tiers

agent-capability-matrix Includes model recommendations

portfolio-artifact Reports cost-per-feature metrics

End Day protocol Logs daily costs, updates MTD

TaskCreate/TaskUpdate Zero API cost — local UI tool for progress tracking

TeamCreate/SendMessage Zero API cost — local coordination (but spawned agents incur model costs)

Storage

~/.claude/ ├── daily-cost.json # Current day's budget + spend ├── cost-log.jsonl # Append-only operation log └── portfolio/ └── daily-metrics.jsonl # Includes cost-per-feature

Deep dive: See reference/cost-tracking-guide.md , reference/budget-templates.md