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What is OpenCues costing me?

Run opencues usage. It prices every call your running hosts have made, per model, with token counts and cache-hit rates, and gives you a total.

CommandWhat you get
opencues usagecalls, tokens, cache-hit rate and cost per model, plus a total
opencues usage --jsonthe same, machine-readable
opencues usage --resetclears the counters and starts again

Why a per-feature estimate is not enough

Several features can fire on a single edit. Word cues, sentence cues, the two session cues and any blank you trigger each make their own call, so reasoning about one feature at a time understates what you are actually spending. This counts everything, which is the number that matters.

Cache discounts are included

Most of what OpenCues sends is a long, stable instruction block that providers can cache, and a cached token is far cheaper than a fresh one. The cost shown reflects that split rather than pricing every token at full rate, so the figure matches your bill rather than a worst case.

It costs nothing to look

The command makes no LLM calls. It reads snapshots the hosts have already written, prices them, and prints. It also counts the short-lived background reader behind session-contradiction cues, which runs outside the editor and would otherwise be invisible.

One gap

Chrome is not counted. The extension has nowhere to write a usage snapshot, so calls made in the browser do not appear in the total. Everything running in a terminal does.

Spending less

Every feature that costs anything can be turned off in ~/.cues/OPENCUES.md, and the passive cues are the ones worth reviewing first if the total surprises you. You can also point a bucket at a cheaper model: cues, auditors and blanks are routed separately, so you can keep a fast model for the ones that run constantly and a stronger one for the ones you invoke by hand.

Related: Best model for inline AI · Contradict an earlier decision · Ask-cues · GitHub repo