AICostManager Python SDK

The AICostManager SDK reports AI usage to AICostManager, helping you track costs across providers.

Prerequisites

1. Create a free account at aicostmanager.com and generate an API key.
2. Export the key as AICM_API_KEY or pass it directly to the client or tracker.

Installation

uv (recommended)

uv pip install aicostmanager
# or add to an existing project
uv add aicostmanager

pip (fallback)

pip install aicostmanager

Quick start

Identify the API and service

Every usage event is tied to two identifiers:

• api_id – the API being called (for example, the OpenAI Chat API)
• service_key – the specific model or service within that API

1. Visit the service lookup page and open the APIs tab. Copy the api_id for the API you are using, e.g. openai_chat.
2. Switch to the Services tab on the same page and copy the full service_key for your model, e.g. openai::gpt-5-mini.

Track usage

from aicostmanager import Tracker

service_key = "openai::gpt-5-mini"  # copied from the Services tab

with Tracker() as tracker:
    tracker.track(service_key, {
        "input_tokens": 10,
        "output_tokens": 20,
    })

Using with Tracker() ensures the background delivery queue is flushed before the program exits.

Configuration values are read from an AICM.INI file. See config.md for the complete list of available settings and their defaults.

LLM wrappers

Wrap popular LLM SDK clients to record usage automatically without calling track manually:

from aicostmanager import OpenAIChatWrapper
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI()
wrapper = OpenAIChatWrapper(client)

resp = wrapper.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o-mini",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hello"}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)


wrapper.close()  # optional for immediate delivery; required for queued delivery

See LLM wrappers for the full list of supported providers and advanced usage.

Choosing a delivery strategy

Tracker supports multiple delivery components via DeliveryType:

• Immediate – send each record synchronously. Ideal for simple scripts or tests.
• Persistent queue (DeliveryType.PERSISTENT_QUEUE) – durable SQLite-backed queue for reliability across restarts.

Use the persistent queue for long-running services where losing usage data is unacceptable and immediate delivery when every call can block on the API. See Persistent Delivery and the Tracker guide for details.

Interpreting /track responses

The /track endpoint now distinguishes between ingestion and background processing. Immediate delivery still returns the first result item, but the payload may not include cost_events right away. Instead, check the status field to understand how the event will be processed:

Unknown services now produce a friendly error message, for example:

{
  "response_id": "resp-456",
  "status": "service_key_unknown",
  "errors": [
    "Service key 'unknown::service' is not recognized. Event queued for review."
  ]
}

Existing integrations should branch on result.status and treat service_key_unknown differently from error. See the tracker documentation for detailed guidance and migration tips.

For real-time insight into the persistent queue, run the queue-monitor command against the SQLite database created by PersistentDelivery:

uv run queue-monitor ~/.config/aicostmanager/queue.db

Tracking in different environments

Python scripts

Use the context manager shown above to automatically flush the queue.

Django

# myapp/apps.py
from django.apps import AppConfig
from aicostmanager import Tracker

tracker = Tracker()

class MyAppConfig(AppConfig):
    name = "myapp"

    def ready(self):
        import atexit
        atexit.register(tracker.close)

# myapp/views.py
from .apps import tracker

def my_view(request):
    tracker.track("openai::gpt-4o-mini", {"input_tokens": 10})
    ...

For a full setup guide, see Django integration guide.

FastAPI

from fastapi import FastAPI
from aicostmanager import Tracker

app = FastAPI()

@app.on_event("startup")
async def startup() -> None:
    app.state.tracker = Tracker()

@app.on_event("shutdown")
def shutdown() -> None:
    app.state.tracker.close()

For a full setup guide, see FastAPI integration guide.

Streamlit

import streamlit as st
from aicostmanager import Tracker
import atexit

@st.cache_resource
def get_tracker():
    tracker = Tracker()
    atexit.register(tracker.close)
    return tracker

tracker = get_tracker()

if st.button("Generate"):
    tracker.track("openai::gpt-4o-mini", {"input_tokens": 10})

For a full setup guide, see Streamlit integration guide.

Celery

from celery import Celery
from aicostmanager import Tracker
from celery.signals import worker_shutdown

app = Celery("proj")
tracker = Tracker()

@app.task
def do_work():
    tracker.track("openai::gpt-4o-mini", {"input_tokens": 10})

@worker_shutdown.connect
def close_tracker(**_):
    tracker.close()

For very short tasks, use with Tracker() as tracker: inside the task to ensure flushing.

More documentation

• Usage Guide
• Tracker
• Configuration
• LLM wrappers
• Persistent Delivery
• Django integration
• FastAPI integration
• Streamlit integration
• Full documentation index