NewsAgent/COST_TRACKING.md

Cost Tracking

News Agent automatically tracks and displays the cost of each run in your daily email digest.

Features

• Per-Run Cost: Shows exactly how much each digest cost to generate
• Cumulative Total: Tracks total spending across all runs
• Database Storage: All cost data saved in SQLite database
• Email Display: Costs shown at the bottom of every digest email

How It Works

1. OpenRouter API Returns Costs: Each API call includes cost information
2. Client Tracks Session Cost: Accumulates cost during the run
3. Database Stores Run Data: Saves cost along with article counts
4. Email Shows Costs: Displays both session and cumulative costs

Email Display

At the bottom of each digest email, you'll see:

💰 Cost Information
This digest: $0.0234  |  Total spent: $1.2456

• This digest: Cost for generating this specific email (filtering + summarization)
• Total spent: Cumulative cost across all runs since you started using the system

View Cost Statistics

Run the cost viewer script:

cd ~/news-agent
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m src.view_costs

Example output:

============================================================
News Agent Cost Statistics
============================================================

💰 Total Cumulative Cost: $1.2456

Recent Runs (last 20):
------------------------------------------------------------
Date         Articles   Included   Cost      
------------------------------------------------------------
2026-01-26   152        15         $0.0234   
2026-01-25   143        12         $0.0198   
2026-01-24   167        15         $0.0245   
...
------------------------------------------------------------

Averages (last 20 runs):
  Cost per run: $0.0226
  Articles per digest: 14.2
  Cost per article: $0.0016

============================================================

Cost Breakdown

Typical Costs (with openai/gpt-4o-mini)

Operation	Articles	Cost
Filtering	150 articles	~$0.015-0.020
Summarization	15 articles	~$0.005-0.008
Total per run	-	~$0.020-0.028

Monthly Estimates

Frequency	Cost/Run	Monthly Cost
Daily	$0.025	~$0.75/month
Daily	$0.030	~$0.90/month

Note: Actual costs vary based on:

• Number of articles fetched
• Content length
• Model used
• Number of articles passing filter

Cost Optimization Tips

1. Adjust Filtering Threshold

Higher threshold = fewer articles = lower cost:

ai:
  filtering:
    min_score: 7.0  # Stricter (was 5.5)
    max_articles: 10  # Fewer articles (was 15)

2. Use Cheaper Models

ai:
  model: "google/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:free"  # FREE (has rate limits)
  # OR
  model: "openai/gpt-4o-mini"  # Cheap and reliable

3. Reduce RSS Sources

Fewer sources = fewer articles = lower cost:

sources:
  rss:
    # Comment out sources you don't need

4. Track and Set Budget Alerts

Monitor costs and adjust:

# View costs regularly
python -m src.view_costs

# If costs are too high, adjust config.yaml settings

Database Schema

The runs table stores:

CREATE TABLE runs (
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    run_date TEXT NOT NULL,
    articles_fetched INTEGER NOT NULL,
    articles_processed INTEGER NOT NULL,
    articles_included INTEGER NOT NULL,
    total_cost REAL NOT NULL,
    filtering_cost REAL DEFAULT 0,
    summarization_cost REAL DEFAULT 0,
    created_at TEXT NOT NULL
);

Query Costs Manually

Using SQLite:

sqlite3 data/articles.db

-- Total cost
SELECT SUM(total_cost) FROM runs;

-- Cost by date
SELECT run_date, total_cost FROM runs ORDER BY run_date DESC;

-- Average cost
SELECT AVG(total_cost) FROM runs;

-- Cost this month
SELECT SUM(total_cost) FROM runs 
WHERE run_date >= date('now', 'start of month');

Troubleshooting

Cost Shows $0.0000

Possible causes:

1. Using free model - Free models may not report costs
2. API response format - OpenRouter might not include cost field
3. First run - Database just initialized

Check:

# View logs for cost tracking
grep -i "cost" data/logs/news-agent.log

# Check if runs are being saved
sqlite3 data/articles.db "SELECT * FROM runs ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 5;"

Cost Seems Wrong

Verify model pricing:

• Check https://openrouter.ai/models for current pricing
• Different models have different costs
• Costs change over time

Check API responses:

# Enable debug logging
# Edit config.yaml:
logging:
  level: "DEBUG"

# Run and check logs
python -m src.main
grep "cost" data/logs/news-agent.log

Export Cost Data

Export to CSV:

sqlite3 -header -csv data/articles.db \
  "SELECT run_date, articles_processed, articles_included, total_cost 
   FROM runs ORDER BY run_date" > costs.csv

Import into Excel/Sheets for analysis.

Cost Projections

Based on current usage, project future costs:

# Get average cost
python -m src.view_costs

# Multiply by days
# If avg = $0.025/day:
# - Weekly: $0.025 × 7 = $0.175
# - Monthly: $0.025 × 30 = $0.75
# - Yearly: $0.025 × 365 = $9.13

Privacy Note

All cost data is stored locally in your SQLite database (data/articles.db). No cost information is sent anywhere except:

• Displayed in your email (which you control)
• Stored in your local database

Future Enhancements

Potential improvements:

1. Split costs - Separate filtering vs summarization costs
2. Budget alerts - Email warning if cost exceeds threshold
3. Cost predictions - Estimate next run cost
4. Web dashboard - Visualize cost trends over time
5. Cost per category - Track which categories cost most

Need Help?

• View current costs: python -m src.view_costs
• Check database: sqlite3 data/articles.db "SELECT * FROM runs;"
• Review logs: tail -f data/logs/news-agent.log
• OpenRouter pricing: https://openrouter.ai/models