API budget cost help
Long-time user here. Used to run everything on Claude OAuth (Max subscription) — worked flawlessly, zero API cost. Then something changed and I ended up on paid API keys, and now my daily crons are quietly draining my budget without me doing anything extra.
I have about 6-7 crons running daily. Each one spins up an isolated session, loads context, does web searches, sends a Telegram message. Nothing crazy but at Sonnet 4.6 pricing ($3 input / $15 output per MTok)
The frustrating part: I'm already paying for Claude Max AND Codex Plus. Having to also fund a separate Anthropic API key just to run OpenClaw feels like paying three times for the same ecosystem.
My question: What model are you using for background/cron agents that's cost-effective but still capable enough for web search + summarization tasks?
Options I'm considering:
Deepseek?
Grok?
GPT?
Gemini is really pain in the butt
Anyone running crons on Deepseek or Gemini Flash? How's the reliability for tool use (web_search, message send)?
Would love to know what combo you're running. Feels like there should be a "budget mode" for crons in OpenClaw config.
Also for scrapping, building tools etc?