Stop Getting Surprised by Your OpenAI Bill
Frugal connects directly to your OpenAI account and alerts you before costs spiral — no proxy, no code changes, up and running in 2 minutes.
The Problem
You gave your engineering team access to the OpenAI API to build incredible features, but now you have no idea how much they are spending until the end of the month.
Spreadsheets are outdated the moment you update them, and logging into the OpenAI dashboard constantly is a waste of time. Worse, a single runaway development loop or poorly optimized prompt can silently drain thousands of dollars overnight.
The Solution
Frugal provides a centralized dashboard to track your OpenAI API costs automatically. We poll your usage data every 5 minutes so you never get surprised by a massive bill again.
It's the easiest way to give your team the AI access they need with the financial guardrails you demand.
Everything you need to control spend
Real-time Polling
See your spend updated every 5 minutes — not just at the end of the month when it's too late to act.
Budget Enforcement
Set hard caps that automatically trigger alerts when approaching limits.
AES-256 Encryption
Your API keys are securely encrypted server-side. We never expose them.
"Frugal caught a runaway dev loop before it hit $2,000. The Slack alert fired within minutes — we killed the process before it became an invoice."
— Early access user, AI startup
How it works
Connect Your Account
Securely add your OpenAI API key. It's encrypted with AES-256 before storage and never appears in plaintext.
Set Budget Rules
Define monthly financial limits for your entire team or specific projects. Choose to alert, throttle, or block.
Get Alerts
Receive Slack and email notifications the moment you hit 80% of your budget — before costs spiral.
Frugal vs Alternatives
| Feature | Frugal | Helicone | Portkey | LangSmith |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No proxy required | Yes | No | No | No |
| Monitors 10+ providers | Yes | Partial | Partial | No |
| Budget alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hard budget blocks | Yes | No | No | No |
| Code change required | None | Proxy URL | Proxy URL | SDK wrap |
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
If you don't find what you need, contact us at support@getfrugal.dev