Usage and limits

Usage in each answer

Each API reports usage under its own field names and adds cost: the request's price in US dollars at your organization's rate.

The fields are described where each API is: Chat Completions, Responses, Messages, Embeddings, Images, Audio and Decisions. Prompt caching lists the cache counts.

• cost is a JSON number. It includes any billed tool-search rounds, so it can be more than the counts times the listed prices. A model with no price reports 0.
• A failed attempt that another provider replaced adds 0 to cost. A retry with the same Idempotency-Key returns the first call's cost and is not billed again: Retries and idempotency.
• cost is left out when any part of it is unknown, which happens when the provider reported no counts for a turn that delivered output: When a provider reports no usage.
• On Chat Completions and Responses, a count that is 0 only because the provider reported nothing is named in usage.unreported_token_details. The names it can hold are cached_tokens, cache_write_tokens, cache_write_1h_tokens and reasoning_tokens. The usage in the last chunk of a Chat Completions stream from such a provider looks like this:

{"prompt_tokens": 12, "completion_tokens": 7, "total_tokens": 19,
 "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 0}, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 0},
 "unreported_token_details": ["cached_tokens", "cache_write_tokens", "reasoning_tokens"],
 "cost": 0.000026}

• You do not need OpenRouter's usage: {"include": true}. llm.buzz drops it, names it in x-sgr-ignored-parameters, and sends usage and cost with every answer whose provider reported counts.

The cost of a finished request

GET /generation?id= answers the record and cost of any finished request of your organization. The ID is gen- and the 32 hex digits of the request's x-request-id:

curl "https://api.llm.buzz/api/v1/generation?id=gen-..." \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LLM_BUZZ_KEY"

total_cost is what you were charged, in US dollars at your rate. Text to speech has no JSON body for its cost, so this record is where you read it. Cost of a finished request lists the rest of the record. An error answer carries no x-request-id, so look for that request on the Logs page.

When a provider reports no usage

Occasionally a provider answers without token counts, or with counts that are all zero. What llm.buzz charges depends on what the attempt delivered:

• A turn that finished without any text or tool output is charged an estimate of its prompt: llm.buzz's own count of the input tokens, with the cached share at the cached rate, and nothing for output. A finished turn is a stop, a stop cut by your token limit, or an empty completion on a stream that opened. The estimate applies to the request's last attempt, and an attempt that another provider replaced costs 0. The answer keeps the counts the provider sent: no usage on Chat Completions and Responses when it sent none, zeros otherwise, and zeros on Messages. Where the answer has a usage, its cost is the estimate. The generation record shows the estimate as total_cost.
• A turn that delivered text, reasoning text or a tool call, or ran a tool search, is charged what llm.buzz reserved when the attempt started: the most the attempt could cost, which is the prompt plus the output limit at the provider's prices and your organization's rate. The answer carries no cost: no usage on Chat Completions and Responses when the provider sent no counts, and zero counts on Messages. The generation record shows the amount as total_cost.

A lower max_tokens lowers the reserved amount. Without one, the output limit is the model's own ceiling, so a model with a large ceiling reserves more. On Chat Completions, Responses and Messages, a request whose last provider failed before its stream opened costs nothing when that provider answered an error status (a 5xx, its own 400 or a 429) or never received the request: you received nothing. The reserved amount is charged when the last provider timed out, when it failed after the request was sent, when a stream opened and then broke off without usage, and when you close a stream before the provider accepted the request (Stopping a stream), because the provider may have generated output you never saw: Retries and idempotency. Embeddings, Images and Audio bill a failed last attempt by their own rules, often nothing: Embeddings, Images and Audio.

In the console

The console shows the same figures over time:

• Activity shows spend, requests, tokens, latency and error rate over 1 to 90 days, a per-day chart by model, and breakdowns by model, provider and calling app.
• Logs lists every request, filtered by state and model. A request opens to its route timeline: the attempts it made, in order.
• Keys lists each key with its limit against its spend, its spend today, this week and this month, its last use and its status.
• Credits shows your balance, the amount your running requests hold, and your credit history.

These pages show your own requests and keys. An organization's admins can switch Activity, Logs and Keys to the whole organization's.

llm.buzz does not serve OpenRouter's /activity or analytics routes: they answer 404 unknown_route. Read totals on Activity, and one request with GET /generation.

Limits

Chat Completions serves one completion per request, so n is 1. A request makes at most 8 provider calls, every fallback included; gateway.retry lowers that ceiling: Retries and idempotency. 402 weight_exceeds_budget and in_flight_budget_exhausted apply when your balance is low, because llm.buzz then holds the most each running request could cost against it. Errors lists every code, and each API's page lists the limits of its own.

Check your key and credit

GET /key describes the key you send, with an inference key or a management key:

curl https://api.llm.buzz/api/v1/key \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LLM_BUZZ_KEY"

• limit, limit_remaining and limit_reset give the key's spending limit, what is left of it and its period (daily, weekly, monthly, or null for the key's whole life). budgets lists the limit with its spend_usd, remaining_usd and resets_at, the start of the next period, and is empty for a key without a limit.
• usage, usage_daily, usage_weekly and usage_monthly are the key's spend in US dollars over its life and in the current UTC day, week and month.
• is_free_tier is true until your organization has bought credit.
• free_model_daily_requests reads 0 for limit, remaining and used. rate_limit is deprecated and safe to ignore.

GET /credits answers your organization's credit and usage in US dollars. It takes a management key; an inference key gets 403 management_key_required:

curl https://api.llm.buzz/api/v1/credits \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LLM_BUZZ_MANAGEMENT_KEY"

{"data": {"total_credits": 25.0, "total_usage": 3.25}}

An organization without credit gets zeros. Authentication explains the two kinds of key.