Budgets and cost
One daily budget per team, budgets per person and goal, what the work cost, and two ways to pay for model usage.
Model usage costs money. kanman counts every model call against one daily budget per team, shows what the work cost, and stops before the budget is crossed instead of after.
The daily budget
Each team has one daily budget for all of kanman’s work on it: planning, the helpers that write the code, and the reviews. When the day’s budget is used up, kanman finishes what it is doing, stops for the day and says so in the team’s conversation. The next day it continues where it left off. Days are counted in UTC.
New teams start with a generous budget, which is lowered only from what the team actually uses. To change your team’s budget, contact us through Help.
Seeing what things cost
- The activity log records the work kanman did and the model use it took.
- Stories tab: the week’s model cost sits next to the merges, and every success story shows what its work cost, in euros and tokens. When your team’s own model access pays (for example a provider key on your runner), the amount is marked “at API list prices”: it shows what the same use would cost at the provider’s list prices, not a bill.
- Weekly recap: kanman’s Friday recap includes the week’s model cost.
- Team tab: Team > Budget and limits shows the spend of the current month.
A story’s cost counts the helpers kanman ran for it, including their reviews. kanman’s own planning and coordination is part of the week’s total, not of a single story.
Budgets per person and goal
On top of the team’s limits you can give a person or a goal a month budget under Team > Budget and limits > Budgets per person and goal:
- A person’s budget covers the work they asked kanman for (their messages, the stories they or their API tokens created) and kanman’s reviews of their merge requests. Reviews count for a person once their code host account is connected.
- A goal’s budget covers the work on the goal’s stories.
Each budget shows this month’s spend. At 80 percent kanman tells the team in its conversation. When a budget is used up, kanman starts no more work for it until the next month or until someone raises the budget, and says so; all other work goes on. Months are counted in UTC.
Keeping cost down
Small, well-written stories cost less and need fewer rounds of fixes. See Write requirements kanman can finish.
Paying for model usage
Each team chooses one of two billing modes (billing_mode):
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Pass-through | kanman uses its own model accounts and bills the compute at cost plus 15 percent |
| Bring your own key (BYOK) | kanman uses your contract with Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI or Amazon Bedrock, or your company’s AI gateway. The model provider bills you directly |
Add a key under Workspace settings > Model access, then choose it when you set up the team. On the same page, New teams use sets which mode new teams start with (What new teams use). Claude Code works with an Anthropic or Amazon Bedrock key. The team’s Team > Models shows which mode it uses, under Model access. Keys are stored encrypted and are never shown again after you save them.
The daily budget applies in both modes: with BYOK it protects your provider bill.
kanman’s assistant steps (drafting and conversation replies) follow the coding tool’s mode unless the team gives them their own under Team > Models > Model access (My own steps use other access).
Plan fees are separate from compute. See Plans and billing.
Related
Last updated: January 1, 0001
Open kanman