Cost budgets

Running agents remotely means they can rack up costs while you’re not watching. Untether tracks API costs per run and per day, with configurable budget limits, warning thresholds, and auto-cancel to keep spending under control — even when you’re away from the screen.

Configure budgets

=== “untether config”

```sh
untether config set cost_budget.enabled true
untether config set cost_budget.max_cost_per_run 2.00
untether config set cost_budget.max_cost_per_day 10.00
```

=== “toml”

```toml
[cost_budget]
enabled = true
max_cost_per_run = 2.00
max_cost_per_day = 10.00
```

Setting	Default	Description
enabled	false	Enable cost tracking and budget enforcement
max_cost_per_run	(none)	Maximum cost for a single run (USD)
max_cost_per_day	(none)	Maximum total cost per day (USD)
warn_at_pct	70	Show a warning when this percentage of the budget is reached
auto_cancel	false	Automatically cancel the run when a budget is exceeded

Per-chat overrides

You can toggle budgets on or off per chat without editing the config file. Open /config → Cost & Usage and use the toggle buttons:

• Budget enabled — turn budget tracking on or off for this chat
• Budget auto-cancel — enable or disable automatic run cancellation when a budget is exceeded

These override the global [cost_budget] settings for the specific chat. Clear the override to revert to the global setting. See Inline settings for the full /config menu reference.

How it works

After each run completes, Untether checks the reported cost against your budgets:

1. Per-run check: if the run cost exceeds max_cost_per_run, you get an alert
2. Daily check: if the cumulative daily cost exceeds max_cost_per_day, you get an alert
3. Warning threshold: at warn_at_pct (default 70%) of either budget, you get an early warning

Token-only engines Engines that don’t report USD costs (Codex, Pi, and OpenCode on its free tier) show token counts in the footer instead (e.g. 💰 26.0k in / 71 out). Gemini CLI and AMP surface total_cost_usd when their CLI reports one; on the free tier they render tokens only. Budget alerts apply only to the USD-reporting path.

Alert levels

Alert	Icon	Meaning
Warning	???	Cost is approaching the budget threshold
Exceeded	????	Cost has exceeded the budget

When auto_cancel = true and a budget is exceeded, Untether cancels the run automatically. Otherwise, you see the alert but the run continues.

Untether ⚠️ cost warning — run cost $1.45 is 73% of $2.00 per-run budget

Daily reset

The daily cost counter resets at midnight (local time, based on the server clock). Each new day starts from zero.

Check current usage

Use the /usage command in Telegram to see your Claude Code subscription usage:

/usage

This shows:

• 5h window: usage percentage and time until reset
• Weekly: 7-day usage percentage and time until reset
• Per-model breakdown: Sonnet and Opus usage (if applicable)
• Extra credits: any overage credits used

The /usage command reads your Claude Code OAuth credentials to fetch live data from the Anthropic API. If you see “No Claude credentials found”, run claude login in your terminal.

Untether Claude Code usage

**5h window**: 42% used (2h 6m left)
**Weekly**: 28% used (5d 2h left)

sonnet: 38% · opus: 4%
extra credits: $0.00

Subscription usage footer

Untether can show subscription usage in the footer of completed messages. This is configured in the [footer] section:

=== “toml”

```toml
[footer]
show_usage = true
```

When enabled, completed messages show a line like:

5h: 45% (2h 15m) | 7d: 30% (4d 3h)

This tells you how much of your 5-hour and 7-day rate limits you’ve used, and when they reset.

Historical statistics

For historical run data beyond the current session, use the /stats command:

/stats

This shows per-engine session statistics (runs, actions, duration) across today, this week, and all time. Pass an engine name to filter (e.g. /stats claude). Data is persisted in the config directory and auto-pruned after 90 days.

Related

• Configuration — full config reference for budget settings
• Commands & directives — /stats and /usage command reference
• Troubleshooting — credential issues with /usage