Budgets and costs

CareerBot pays for AI with your own OpenRouter key, or on careerbot.dev with CareerBot's AI included in your plan, and for company data with your own Apollo plan. Two budgets in Settings, Budgets and spending, cap what it can spend.

The monthly AI budget

Monthly budget under AI is the most CareerBot may spend on AI in a month. Until you set one, no AI work runs: "Set a monthly AI budget to continue." The meter shows what's been spent this month and when it resets.

The budget counts calendar months in UTC and starts again on the 1st.

How a call stays inside it

Before every AI call, CareerBot works out the most that call could cost at its model's current price, and sets that amount aside against your budget. The call is sent with a cap on its reply, so it can't cost more than it holds. When it finishes, its real cost replaces what it held, and the rest is given back.

When CareerBot works through many roles at once, it sets aside the most of a few calls together and takes each call's share from that, giving back what's left when it's done or when a call doesn't fit. What's set aside counts against your budget like a single call's, so the budget is never passed.

A call is refused, and nothing is sent to OpenRouter, when:

Prices are read from OpenRouter every hour, so what a call holds follows the providers' prices. A call that may have cost more than OpenRouter reported is checked each night against OpenRouter's own record, so your spending adds up.

Pausing and picking up

When the budget runs out, work pauses instead of failing. It picks up where it left off when you raise the budget, and on the 1st of each month (UTC) when the budget resets. Where an action needs the budget that's spent, its button says why and offers Raise budget, which opens your budgets.

CareerBot's AI on careerbot.dev

On careerbot.dev you don't need an OpenRouter key: without one, AI runs on CareerBot's own key within the monthly allowance your plan includes, plus your plan's extra in your first 30 days if it has one. A copy you run yourself always uses your own key.

• AI allowance in Budgets and spending shows it. The meter shows what's spent of it this month. Your plan is under Account, with Pay for a paid plan, or Manage payment once it's paid.
• Monthly budget can lower it, if you want to spend less, but not raise it.
• On CareerBot's AI, tasks use the models your plan lists. Some plans set the models; AI settings then shows them, and they can't be changed. Other models need your own OpenRouter key, where your plan allows one.
• On a paid plan, its AI starts once it's paid. If a payment fails, AI work pauses until it goes through.
• Without a card on file (a paid plan or a free trial), CareerBot's AI needs a verified email. An email Google signs you in with is verified. With GitHub, CareerBot uses your public GitHub email, or your primary one if you have none, and it counts as verified when GitHub has verified it. Verify it with GitHub and sign in again, choose a paid plan, or add your own OpenRouter key.
• When the allowance is used up, AI work pauses like it does at a budget, and Budgets and spending and Today say so. It picks up again on the 1st. To keep going sooner, Top up buys more AI, Larger plan moves you to a plan with more AI each month, and Add your own key opens Keys. Where your plan sells no top-ups, Ask for more writes to team@careerbot.dev instead.
• With your own OpenRouter key, the allowance no longer applies: AI is paid from your own account, within your own Monthly budget. Remove the key and the allowance applies again.

Top up

Top up, beside Top-ups in Budgets and spending and on the notice when your allowance is used up, lists the amounts of AI your plan sells, each with its price. Choosing one opens Stripe's checkout; you pay once, and the AI is added when it's paid. It's used once your monthly allowance is, and what you don't use carries over to next month. Top-ups shows what's left.

A larger plan

When your allowance is used up and a plan with more AI each month is on offer, Larger plan lists those plans with their prices. While you pay for a plan, they're also under Account, each with Move up. Moving up while you pay changes your plan at once: you pay the difference for the rest of this period through Stripe, a free trial ends, and your new allowance applies straight away. If the card is refused, nothing changes. Without a paid plan, choosing one opens Stripe's checkout, and it starts once it's paid.

When a lot starts at once

So that runaway or scripted use can't swamp CareerBot, a workspace can start up to 1,500 AI calls and 120 pieces of background work a minute. Your own work stays well under that; even ranking hundreds of roles at once makes a few hundred calls a minute. Work past it isn't lost: it waits, and starts again by itself once the minute has turned. Activity shows why it's waiting.

Estimates beside buttons

Most buttons that start AI work show what it costs beside them, like "About $0.02". The estimate is the average of your last 20 calls of that kind. Until your own first call of a kind, it's what that step costs others: the middle of what one call of it has cost each person over this month and last, worked out each night. When no one has made that call yet, it says "Uses your AI budget". Hover a button for the same cost.

Apollo credits

Credits set aside each month under Apollo is the most CareerBot may use in each of your Apollo plan's billing cycles. 0 lets it use whatever is left in your plan, never more. Every Apollo call reads your balance first and holds its credits before it runs. Automated Apollo work decides whether Apollo work runs on its own: On, Only when I ask, or Paused. What spends credits is on Companies.

Where the money went

Open Reports in Budgets and spending opens the Spending view of Reports: AI and Apollo spending by month, by area and by task, who started the work, and spending per pursuit. It counts settled calls; calls still waiting for their price are listed apart.