Help & FAQ

Get an OpenAI admin key (2 minutes)

  1. Sign in at platform.openai.com → Settings → Organization → Admin keys. You must be an Owner of the organization.
  2. Click Create new admin key. Name it AI Spend Tracker.
  3. Copy the key. It starts with sk-admin-. You won't see it again.
  4. In AI Spend Tracker, open Connections → Add connection, pick OpenAI and paste the key.

A normal API key (sk-proj-...) won't work: only admin keys can read costs.

Get an Anthropic admin key (2 minutes)

  1. Sign in at console.anthropic.com → Settings → Admin keys. You need the admin role.
  2. If you don't see Admin keys, your account is an individual account. Set up an organization first under Settings → Organization.
  3. Click Create admin key, name it AI Spend Tracker, and copy it. It starts with sk-ant-admin.
  4. Paste it under Connections → Add connection → Anthropic.

Connect Google Gemini (about 10 minutes)

Google doesn't offer a simple billing key, so this reads your Gemini API and Vertex AI costs from Google Cloud's own billing export. Costs show up about a day later.

  1. Turn on the billing export. In the Google Cloud console → Billing, open Billing export → BigQuery export. Under Standard usage cost, click Edit settings, pick a project and create a dataset (for example billing_data), then save. You need the Billing Account Administrator or Costs Manager role. The first data can take up to a day to arrive.
  2. Create a read-only service account. In IAM & Admin → Service accounts of that same project, click Create service account, name it ai-spend-tracker, and give it two roles: BigQuery Data Viewer and BigQuery Job User.
  3. Download its key. Open the service account, go to Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON. A small JSON file downloads.
  4. Copy the table ID. In BigQuery, open your dataset and click the table named gcp_billing_export_v1_.... Under Details, copy the Table ID (it looks like my-project.billing_data.gcp_billing_export_v1_XXXX).
  5. In AI Spend Tracker, open Connections → Add connection → Google Gemini, paste the whole JSON file into the key box and the table ID below it.

The service account can only read data. Reading the billing table uses a tiny slice of BigQuery's free monthly allowance.

Get an xAI (Grok) management key (2 minutes)

  1. Sign in at console.x.ai and open Settings → Management keys for your team.
  2. Create a key named AI Spend Tracker and copy it. A normal xAI API key won't work.
  3. Paste it under Connections → Add connection → xAI (Grok).

Get an OpenRouter management key (2 minutes)

One OpenRouter connection covers every model you use through it, including Gemini, Llama, Mistral and DeepSeek.

  1. Go to openrouter.ai → Settings → Management keys and click Create New Key.
  2. Name it AI Spend Tracker, copy it, and paste it under Connections → Add connection → OpenRouter.

OpenRouter reports finished days, so today's spend appears tomorrow.

Connect DeepSeek (1 minute)

  1. Create an API key at platform.deepseek.com → API keys. It starts with sk-.
  2. Paste it under Connections → Add connection → DeepSeek.

DeepSeek only shares your current balance, so we count how much it drops between checks. Spend starts counting from the day you connect, and top-ups are ignored.

Add any other tool by hand

For tools without a billing API (Midjourney, ElevenLabs, Perplexity and so on), pick Other (enter it yourself), type the name and what you spent this month. Update it any time with Set amount under Connections.

FAQ

How fresh is the data? We check once a day at the hour you choose, whenever you click Refresh, and right after you save a connection. Most providers report within a few hours. Google Gemini and OpenRouter are about a day behind.

Why doesn't the total match my invoice exactly? Providers sometimes revise recent days, and taxes or credits may not appear in cost reports. Totals are in USD, converted to your currency with daily rates. Months follow UTC.

Will you stop my API usage when I hit my budget? No. We alert you, but we never change anything in your provider account.

What about ElevenLabs, Midjourney, Perplexity and other tools? If you use a model through OpenRouter, connect OpenRouter. For anything else, add it under Other (enter it yourself) and type in what you spent. It counts toward your budget and alerts like everything else.

I lost my authenticator phone. Use one of the backup codes you saved during setup. No codes left? Email support@aispendtracker.online from your account's email address.

How do I cancel? Billing → Manage billing → Cancel. You keep your plan until the end of the period.

Refunds? Within 7 days of a charge. See the refund policy.