The usage budget
AI costs fail quietly - a few cents per call, a few hundred calls a week, and suddenly a bill. The usage budget makes spend loud instead.
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Why this matters
The goal was never to spend nothing - frontier models are worth money for the right jobs. The goal is knowing exactly what you spend and having chosen it. A visible budget turns cost from a leak into a dial.
The walkthrough
Set the number
Open the usage page, type a monthly budget in dollars, save. That is the whole setup.
What counts (and what does not)
Only real per-token dollar spend counts toward the budget - metered API calls. Free local models never touch the meter. Flat-rate plans do not either; they are already a known number on your card.
The routing rule that does the saving
Free local brains for everyday questions and routing. Flat-rate for the daily grind. Frontier models only for jobs that earn them. In Cronus this is a model-picker setting, not a discipline you have to maintain by hand.
Read it weekly
A ten-second glance tells you where the money went. If the number surprises you, the model picker is one click away - and the free path always exists.