Your AOS install fee and 100 dollars per month hosting do not include model token usage. That is billed separately so you only pay for the work the agents actually do, and so the one variable cost is isolated where you can see and cap it. This article explains how token billing works and how to keep it predictable.
Two ways to pay for tokens
- AOS Credits (available today). You top up a credit balance. Usage draws down against it with hard caps and a transparent ledger, so you can see exactly where tokens went and spend can never run away from you.
- BYOK, bring your own keys (coming soon). Connect your own model provider accounts and pay the provider directly. AOS still tracks usage on the ledger so you keep one clear view of consumption.
How spend stays predictable
- Hard caps. The token ledger is capped. Once a cap is reached, work pauses and surfaces to you rather than silently overspending.
- A visible ledger. You can check usage at any time, broken down by mission and department so you understand the burn instead of guessing.
- Non-goals on every mission. Because each mission has three explicit non-goals, agents do not wander into expensive scope you did not ask for.
- The money approval point. Any spend, refund, or commitment over your cap (default 1,000 dollars per move, 10,000 dollars per week) waits for your sign-off.
- Model routing. Heavy reasoning goes to capable models, routine steps go to cheaper ones. You are not paying premium rates for trivial work.
What actually drives token cost
Three things move the number: how many missions run in parallel, how research-heavy the work is, and how much back-and-forth a mission needs to pass its acceptance bar. Clear briefs with tight non-goals are the single biggest lever you control. A sharp one-paragraph brief is cheaper than a vague one because the team gets it right sooner.
Estimating your usage
The token calculator on the AOS site gives you a realistic read on what to expect at your scale before you commit. As a rule of thumb, light operational work is inexpensive, and large research or content pushes cost more, but the ledger and caps keep all of it in view. Start with conservative caps, watch the ledger for a week, and adjust once you know your real pattern.
What if I hit a cap mid-mission?
The mission pauses and surfaces in your founder summary. You can raise the cap, top up credits, or let it wait. Nothing is lost. The evidence trail holds the work in progress, so when you lift the cap the team picks up exactly where it stopped.
Keeping the bill boring
The goal is a token bill with no surprises. Set caps you are comfortable with, keep briefs tight, review the ledger on the same day each week, and let the money approval point catch anything large. Predictable is the feature.