Cost model
Controller AI meters usage in usage cents (100 usage cents = $1) drawn from a pool shared by the whole organization. Every run — development or live — draws from the same pool. This page gives you the shape of the model so you can predict a workflow’s cost before running it at volume; exact rates are visible in the app under usage records.
The short version
Section titled “The short version”| What | Cost shape |
|---|---|
| Flow control, logic, expressions, data records, agent file operations | Free |
| Built-in integration nodes | Small flat fee per execution (smaller when using your own connected account) |
| Catalog integration nodes | Flat fee per execution |
| AI operations (Use AI, AI-powered expression ops) | Provider’s cost with a small markup |
| Paid external APIs proxied through the platform | Provider’s cost with a small markup |
Two consequences worth internalizing:
- Structure is free. Branching, transforming, joining, storing records, and returning responses cost nothing. You never pay for making a workflow well-organized.
- Volume multiplies the metered steps only. A flow run over a 500-item list pays 500× its integration and AI steps, and 0× its logic. When estimating, count the metered nodes inside the loop, not the nodes in the workflow.
Where cost appears
Section titled “Where cost appears”Each workflow execution records its cost, visible in execution history and in usage records under settings. Usage records break down by category: AI provider usage, managed integration usage, external API usage, integration action calls, and execution costs.
cai exec listcai exec get <workflowExecutionId> --jsonAgent conversations meter their tool calls the same way — a workflow tool’s cost shows on the workflow execution it creates.
What your subscription covers — and doesn’t
Section titled “What your subscription covers — and doesn’t”Your coding-agent subscription (Claude, Codex, Cursor) covers the reasoning of the agent that builds on Controller AI. It does not cover the Controller AI hosted runtime: agent conversations on the platform, workflow runs, and AI nodes bill to the organization’s usage pool.
Keeping costs predictable
Section titled “Keeping costs predictable”- Prefer data-store records over repeated external lookups — reads and writes are free.
- Put the metered step behind the filter, not before it: filter the list first, then run the integration node on survivors.
- For scheduled workflows, remember the schedule multiplies everything downstream of it.
- Before a bulk run, check the per-item cost with a single dev run and multiply.
Example prompts
Section titled “Example prompts”Estimate what one run of this workflow costs, broken down by node, and what a daily schedule over ~200 items would cost per month.Restructure this flow so the AI step only runs on records that pass the filter.