Frequently Asked Questions

CostLayer is an AI API cost tracking and optimisation platform. It connects to your OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google AI accounts to automatically track spending, surface savings opportunities, and help engineering teams stay within budget.

Sign up for a free account, connect your first AI provider using an API key, and CostLayer begins syncing your usage data automatically. Setup takes under 2 minutes.

CostLayer currently supports OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), and Google (Gemini). We’re actively adding more providers based on user requests.

Most teams are fully set up in under 2 minutes. Connect your provider API key, and CostLayer handles the rest — syncing historical data and generating your first insights immediately.

CostLayer offers a free tier for individual developers tracking up to $1,000/month in AI spend. Team and Enterprise plans start at $49/month with advanced features like budget alerts, team breakdowns, and priority support.

Yes! Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of all Pro features. No credit card required. After the trial, you can continue on our free tier or upgrade.

Absolutely. There are no long-term contracts. You can cancel, upgrade, or downgrade your plan at any time from your account settings.

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) and can arrange invoice billing for Enterprise customers.

Yes. All API keys are encrypted using AES-256-GCM encryption before storage. Keys are never logged, never exposed in the UI after initial entry, and are only decrypted server-side when syncing usage data.

No. CostLayer only accesses billing and usage endpoints. We never read, store, or process your prompts, completions, or any conversation data.

All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest. API keys use AES-256-GCM encryption with unique initialisation vectors. Our infrastructure runs on Vercel and Supabase with SOC 2 compliant hosting.

CostLayer analyses your usage patterns and identifies where you could use a more cost-effective model without significant quality loss. For example, switching routine GPT-4o calls to GPT-4o-mini can save up to 90% on those requests.

Team breakdowns let you tag API usage by team or project, so you can see exactly which team or feature is driving your AI costs. This helps with internal chargebacks and budget allocation.

Yes. Set spending thresholds by provider, team, or total spend. CostLayer sends alerts via email and Slack when you approach or exceed your budget — daily, weekly, or monthly.

Yes. CostLayer uses linear regression on your daily spend data to project your month-end total, along with a confidence score and trend indicator (increasing, stable, or decreasing).

Yes. Export your cost data as CSV, JSON, or branded PDF reports from the Reports page. Perfect for finance reviews, team standups, or executive summaries.