Guide · 3 min read
Cost and budget
How Miton tracks per-session and per-model cost, how to read the budget bar, and how to manage spend.
- Product stage
- Pre-release development
- Last reviewed
- 2026-07-23
- Successful result
- The change is visible in the active project.
What this accomplishes
How Miton tracks per-session and per-model cost, how to read the budget bar, and how to manage spend.
Miton tracks tokens sent and received per model, session, and turn. Cost appears in the status bar and in session detail.
Current availability
This page documents behaviour verified in Miton development builds. Miton is still pre-release and is not publicly downloadable; invited beta users will receive a signed desktop build with automatic updates.
Before you start
- A Miton development build and an active project.
- A connected cloud or local model, plus any credentials or local runtime required by this task.
Where to see costs
Per-turn badges
Each message in the transcript can show the model used and the cost for that turn. Expand the badge for tokens in, tokens out, and the cost calculation.
Session cost indicator
The status bar above chat shows the running session cost as a live dollar figure (for example
$0.014).
Usage analytics
Open Stats from the status bar (or search “usage stats” in the ⌘, settings palette) for:
- Total cost per session with a timeline chart
- Per-model breakdown
- Token volume by session
- Cost trend over the last 7, 30, or 90 days
Analytics are computed locally from your session history.
Free-tier budget bar
When you use the free gateway, a budget bar appears as you approach the period limit. It turns amber near the limit and red when you are close to exhausted.
When the free limit is reached, Miton prompts you to add a model key or wait for reset.
Model health indicator
The status bar shows a health dot next to the model name:
- Green — responding normally
- Amber — elevated latency or partial degradation
- Red — unavailable
Health comes from provider status pages where available and from local timing otherwise.
Routing profile and cost
Your routing profile affects cost:
| Profile | Cost behaviour |
|---|---|
free |
Free-tier models only; no Miton spend |
cheapest |
Minimises cost each turn |
balanced |
Default quality, cost, and speed trade-off |
premium |
Prefers frontier models; higher cost |
max |
Highest-capability model available each turn |
Long sessions on balanced may use cheaper models for simple steps and reserve stronger models for harder ones.
What success looks like
How Miton tracks per-session and per-model cost, how to read the budget bar, and how to manage spend. The result remains attached to the active project when you move to another workspace.
Common failures and recovery
- Confirm the correct project and model are active.
- Read the exact error and the requested permission before retrying.
- Retry only the failed step so completed project work remains intact.