# Understanding Costs

Complete breakdown of AGOS Cloud pricing and billing.

## Cost Components

### 1. Setup Fee (One-Time)

| Fee           | Amount               | When Charged   |
| ------------- | -------------------- | -------------- |
| **Setup Fee** | ~~29 AIOU~~ **FREE** | Agent creation |

🎉 **Limited Time Promotion**: Setup fee is FREE for 2 weeks!

Covers VPS provisioning and initial configuration.

### 2. Operating Balance (Minimum)

| Item             | Amount  | Purpose                 |
| ---------------- | ------- | ----------------------- |
| **Min. Balance** | 10 AIOU | Funds initial operation |

Not a fee - goes to your agent's wallet for spending.

### 3. VPS Hourly Billing

Based on resource class:

| Class   | Hourly Rate | Monthly (30 days) |
| ------- | ----------- | ----------------- |
| Default | \~0.05 AIOU | \~36 AIOU         |
| Large   | \~0.10 AIOU | \~72 AIOU         |

⚠️ **Important**: VPS billing continues while agent exists, even if stopped. Billing only stops when agent is deleted.

### 4. LLM API Usage

Per-token pricing:

| Model             | Input         | Output        |
| ----------------- | ------------- | ------------- |
| deepseek-chat     | $0.280 per 1M | $0.420 per 1M |
| deepseek-reasoner | $0.280 per 1M | $0.420 per 1M |

Billed in real-time from agent wallet.

## Total Cost Example

First month running a default agent:

| Item          | Cost                                |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Setup Fee     | ~~29 AIOU~~ **FREE** (limited time) |
| VPS (30 days) | \~36 AIOU                           |
| LLM (example) | \~10 AIOU                           |
| **Total**     | **\~46 AIOU**                       |

Subsequent months: \~46 AIOU

## How Billing Works

### Agent Wallet System

```
User Main Wallet
      ↓
  Transfer
      ↓
Agent Wallet
      ↓
   Pay for
VPS + LLM
```

1. **User** deposits USDT → gets AIOU
2. **User** transfers AIOU to agent wallet
3. **Agent** spends AIOU on VPS and LLM
4. **Platform** deducts costs automatically

### Billing Cycle

* **VPS**: Deducted hourly from agent wallet
* **LLM**: Deducted per request
* **Real-time**: Balance updates immediately

## Monitoring Costs

### In AGOS Cloud Platform

**Dashboard**:

* Total AIOU spent
* Active agent count
* Current balance

**History**:

* All transactions
* VPS billing entries
* LLM usage charges

### In Agent Dashboard

**Usage** tab shows:

* Resource consumption
* API call volume
* Cost breakdown

## Cost Optimization Tips

### 1. Right-Size Resources

Don't over-provision:

* Start with Default class
* Monitor CPU/RAM/disk usage in the Agent Dashboard
* Upgrade to Large only if workloads consistently hit limits

### 2. Monitor LLM Usage

Expensive operations add up:

* Track API calls in Usage tab
* Optimize prompt lengths
* Use appropriate models

### 3. Set Budgets

Configure spending limits:

* Per-agent budget caps
* Alerts at thresholds
* Auto-stop options

### 4. Clean Up Unused Agents

⚠️ **Important**: Stopped agents still incur VPS costs!

To stop billing:

1. Stop the agent
2. **Delete** the agent (irreversible)

## What Happens When Balance is Low?

### Warning Threshold

* Agent shows "low balance" status
* Notifications (if configured)

### Depletion

* LLM requests return 402 error
* Agent cannot make API calls
* VPS continues running (and billing)

### Recovery

* Fund agent wallet immediately
* Services resume automatically

## Refund Policy

⚠️ **AIOU is non-refundable**

* Cannot convert back to USDT
* Plan deposits carefully
* Only deposit what you intend to use

## Viewing Detailed Bills

**Transaction History** shows:

* Date/time
* Transaction type
* Amount
* Balance after
* Reference

Export available for accounting purposes.

## FAQ

**Q: Why is my agent still being charged when stopped?** A: VPS resources are reserved. Billing stops only when agent is deleted.

**Q: Can I get a refund for unused AIOU?** A: No, AIOU is non-refundable per platform policy.

**Q: How do I reduce costs?** A: Use smaller resource class, optimize LLM calls, delete unused agents.

## Next Steps

→ [Managing Agents](/agos/agos-cloud/platform/managing-agents.md) to learn about start/stop/delete


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