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Pricing Calculator (Cost Estimation)

Estimate LLM costs based on expected token usage and request volume. This tool helps developers and platform teams forecast spending before deploying models to production.

When to Use This Feature​

Use the Pricing Calculator to:

  • Budget planning - Estimate monthly costs before committing to a model
  • Model comparison - Compare costs across different models for your use case
  • Capacity planning - Understand cost implications of scaling request volume
  • Cost optimization - Identify the most cost-effective model for your token requirements

Using the Pricing Calculator​

This walkthrough shows how to estimate LLM costs using the Pricing Calculator in the LiteLLM UI.

Step 1: Navigate to Settings​

From the LiteLLM dashboard, click on Settings in the left sidebar.

Click Settings

Step 2: Open Cost Tracking​

Click on Cost Tracking to access the cost configuration options.

Click Cost Tracking

Step 3: Open Pricing Calculator​

Click on Pricing Calculator to expand the calculator panel. This section allows you to estimate LLM costs based on expected token usage and request volume.

Click Pricing Calculator

Step 4: Select a Model​

Click the Model dropdown to select the model you want to estimate costs for.

Click Model field

Choose a model from the list. The models shown are the ones configured on your LiteLLM proxy.

Select model

Step 5: Configure Token Counts​

Enter the expected Input Tokens (per request) - this is the average number of tokens in your prompts.

Click Input Tokens field

Enter the expected Output Tokens (per request) - this is the average number of tokens in model responses.

Click Output Tokens field

Step 6: Set Request Volume​

Enter your expected request volume. You can specify Requests per Day and/or Requests per Month.

Click Requests per Month field

For example, enter 10000000 for 10 million requests per month.

Enter request volume

Step 7: View Cost Estimates​

The calculator automatically updates as you change values. View the cost breakdown including:

  • Per-Request Cost - Total cost, input cost, output cost, and margin/fee per request
  • Daily Costs - Aggregated costs if you specified requests per day
  • Monthly Costs - Aggregated costs if you specified requests per month

View cost estimates

Step 8: Export the Report​

Click the Export button to download your cost estimate. You can export as:

  • PDF - Opens a print dialog to save as PDF (great for sharing with stakeholders)
  • CSV - Downloads a spreadsheet-compatible file for further analysis

Cost Breakdown Details​

The Pricing Calculator shows:

FieldDescription
Total CostComplete cost including any configured margins
Input CostCost for input/prompt tokens
Output CostCost for output/completion tokens
Margin/FeeAny configured provider margins
Token PricingPer-token rates (shown as $/1M tokens)

API Endpoint​

You can also estimate costs programmatically using the /cost/estimate endpoint:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:4000/cost/estimate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "input_tokens": 1000,
    "output_tokens": 500,
    "num_requests_per_day": 1000,
    "num_requests_per_month": 30000
  }'

Response:

{
  "model": "gpt-4",
  "input_tokens": 1000,
  "output_tokens": 500,
  "num_requests_per_day": 1000,
  "num_requests_per_month": 30000,
  "cost_per_request": 0.045,
  "input_cost_per_request": 0.03,
  "output_cost_per_request": 0.015,
  "margin_cost_per_request": 0.0,
  "daily_cost": 45.0,
  "daily_input_cost": 30.0,
  "daily_output_cost": 15.0,
  "daily_margin_cost": 0.0,
  "monthly_cost": 1350.0,
  "monthly_input_cost": 900.0,
  "monthly_output_cost": 450.0,
  "monthly_margin_cost": 0.0,
  "input_cost_per_token": 3e-05,
  "output_cost_per_token": 6e-05,
  "provider": "openai"
}