OpenClaw Developer Reveals Monthly OpenAI API Bill Topped $1.3 Million

Developer Peter Steinberger launched OpenClaw, whose team is using large numbers of OpenAI Codex Agents in an automated software development experiment to test the scale of engineering work AI can achieve without a budget cap. The project also highlights the potentially enormous model-compute costs of agentic development, even as it boosts productivity.

Steinberger recently disclosed that the OpenClaw team spent more than $1.3 million on the OpenAI API over 30 consecutive days, averaging more than $43,000 a day. Reports said OpenAI covered the experimental costs. Available information identifies only the 30-day measurement period and does not provide exact start and end dates.