Bills are scattered
Your AI spending is spread across providers, models, and tools, each dashboard showing only its own slice. Reconciling those numbers by hand does not scale when the model mix changes weekly.
Know what your AI actually costs — with evidence.
AI Cost Management is a local-first Windows desktop app for high-frequency AI users and multi-model workflows. It records verifiable, source-reported costs in a local database on your machine, and shows what AI activity is happening locally — as evidence, not guesses.
Built for people who use AI every day — across many models
Numbers are hard to trust
Estimated totals hide what you actually paid. You need figures that come from the source itself: official exports and official API reports — nothing invented.
Local AI activity is invisible
AI coding tools and agents run on your machine and open network connections you rarely see. You need a way to check — locally — what AI processes are actually running and connecting.
What is in version 1.5.5
Monitoring and visibility — nothing more, nothing less.
Dashboard
Today's and recent verified spending, broken down by provider, model, and day, with attention signals for unusual changes.
Usage records
Inspect model, provider, token, and cost records with a full details view. Unknown costs stay unknown — they are never estimated.
Saving insights
See where your verified spending is concentrated and what is driving it, so you can decide where to cut — with real numbers, not rules of thumb.
Budget status
Daily, weekly, and monthly budgets computed from verified cost data, with in-page status, progress, and forecasts. Display only — it does not block spending and sends no notifications.
AI Activity (on-demand snapshot)
Scan local AI-related processes and network connections on Windows, using local evidence. Evidence only — not proof of spending. Results are kept in memory and cleared when the app restarts. Detection may produce false positives. There is no background monitoring.
DeepSeek official export import
Import the official DeepSeek usage export ZIP directly into the local database. No API keys required, parsed locally, prices preserved in the original currency (CNY).
Built-in price registry
Ships with version 1.5.5: verified price information for 4 providers and 10 models, read from vendor documentation and seeded into the local database automatically on first launch — ready before you import anything. Bundled with this release — we do not promise automatic or real-time price updates.
Local-first by design
Your records stay in a local database
All records live in a local SQLite database on your computer
(on the installed app: %APPDATA%\AI-Cost-Management\data\).
Uninstalling the app preserves your data.
No account, no cloud sync
There is no login and no server side. We found no code paths that upload your usage or cost data, and no analytics or crash-reporting code in the application.
Honest about network traffic
We do not claim the app makes zero network requests. Being precise:
- Opening the AI Activity page may send reverse DNS lookups for remote IPs your machine is connected to.
- The optional provider connectivity test contacts that provider's API — only when you trigger it.
- Your usage and cost data is not uploaded — we found no code path that uploads it.
Download version 1.5.5
- Version
- 1.5.5
- File
- AI-Cost-Management-Setup.exe
- Size
- 7,168 bytes
- Payload
- AI-Cost-Management-Payload.cab
- Payload size
- 32,503,105 bytes
- Platform
- Windows x64 (minimum supported Windows version: to be confirmed)
- Installer signing
- Not confirmed — your system may show a SmartScreen prompt when running the installer.
- SHA256
- C8403A4D9276D2636D3EF1844865D5404F8DFB3B3DA24AE2102FA705C5F128EF
Installation
- The v1.5.5 installer package consists of two files:
AI-Cost-Management-Setup.exeandAI-Cost-Management-Payload.cab. The "Download Setup.exe" button downloads Setup.exe only — download Payload.cab from the Release page (second button above). - Put both files in the same folder.
- Run
AI-Cost-Management-Setup.exeto start the installation.
The installer name, size, and SHA256 above were verified against the published GitHub release for v1.5.5. We have not run an end-to-end in-browser download test from this page.
FAQ
Do I need API keys to use it?
No. The core features — Dashboard, usage records, budget status, saving views, and AI Activity snapshots — run without any API key, and importing a DeepSeek official export ZIP requires none either. These are separate from the optional provider connectivity test, which contacts the provider's API only when you run it.
Where is my data stored?
In a local SQLite database on your machine. On the installed
Windows app that is
%APPDATA%\AI-Cost-Management\data\. Uninstalling the app
removes the program files but keeps your data.
Does the budget stop me from overspending?
No. Budgets only display status inside the app — progress, warnings, and forecasts on the Budget page. Nothing is blocked, no push notifications or alerts are sent, and no spending is interrupted.
Is AI Activity a real-time monitor?
No. It takes an on-demand snapshot of local processes and network connections when you open the page (results are cached briefly, and you can refresh manually). The results are activity evidence, not proof that money was spent. History is kept only in memory and is cleared when the app restarts. Detection can produce false positives, and it works on Windows only.
Does the app send anything over the network?
We found no code that uploads your usage or cost data, and no analytics or crash-reporting code in the application. Two known exceptions are documented above: reverse DNS lookups while the AI Activity scan runs, and the optional provider connectivity test you trigger yourself.
Which systems are supported?
Windows x64. The minimum supported Windows version and the installer's code-signing status are not confirmed yet — treat both as to-be-confirmed until published here.
Which import formats are supported?
The official DeepSeek usage export ZIP
(usage_data_*.zip), parsed locally in two steps with a
confirmation before anything is written to your database.
Is the project open source? What license does it use?
No license has been published in the repository yet. Check the repository for updates before redistributing, and do not assume open-source terms.