AI Usage and Billing
Understand Vendo-paid and bring-your-own-key AI usage, view model-level token costs, and control which models are available.
Last reviewed July 13, 2026
Every Agent request consumes tokens for instructions, conversation context, tool definitions, tool results, and the model’s response. The current account screens are the source of truth for available models, recorded usage, and estimated cost.
Key sources
| Key source | Billing behavior |
|---|---|
| Vendo-provided | Vendo pays the provider and records the attributable usage for the workspace |
| Bring your own key (BYOK) | The provider bills your account directly; Vendo still records usage metadata for visibility |
The model picker shows only models whose provider is available and which the workspace has not disabled.
View usage
Open Workspace Settings → AI Usage to review:
- Input and output tokens.
- Estimated or reported cost.
- Vendo-provided versus BYOK usage.
- Usage by model and month.
Open Workspace Settings → Billing & Usage for broader platform usage such as credits, pipeline activity, and storage where available.
Manage models and provider keys
- Open Workspace Settings → AI Models.
- Add or update a provider key when using BYOK.
- Test the key before saving it.
- Enable only the models your team intends to use.
- Return to Agent and confirm the picker reflects the change.
Provider catalogs and prices change. Use the account’s model and usage screens rather than a copied price table in documentation.
Reduce unnecessary usage
- Start a new session when the objective changes.
- Ask for a schema or small sample before requesting a large analysis.
- Give a precise metric, time range, and output format.
- Save durable context in Documents instead of repeatedly pasting it.
- Ask the Agent to summarize intermediate results before continuing a long workflow.
Understand context limits
Each model has a context window and output limit. The Agent may prune older messages or summarize tool results when a conversation grows. If earlier requirements become important again, restate them or start a focused session with the relevant document.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Check |
|---|---|
| Model missing from picker | Provider key, model preference, and platform availability |
| BYOK call fails | Key validity, provider balance, rate limit, and model access |
| Cost differs from an estimate | Provider-reported usage, caching, markup, and current provider price |
| Usage is unexpectedly high | Long context, large tool results, retries, and model choice |