OpenClaw itself is free
OpenClaw is MIT-licensed open-source software. You don't pay for the software. You pay for the LLM API calls it makes, the hardware it runs on, and optionally professional setup and support.
API costs (the main expense)
OpenClaw consumes significantly more tokens than chatting in a browser because it's an agent — each task triggers 5-10 API calls with full context re-sent each time. Claude Sonnet 4.6: $3 input / $15 output per million tokens. Real-world costs: light personal use runs $10-30/month, moderate business use $50-150/month, heavy automation $200+/month. The biggest cost driver is context accumulation in long sessions — start new sessions regularly to keep costs down.
Hardware costs
Mac Mini M4: $499-599 one-time. VPS: $5-20/month (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr). Raspberry Pi: works for light use but struggles with heavy automation. Your existing laptop: $0, but not recommended for 24/7 use or security reasons.
Professional setup costs
Personal setup: $499 flat rate. Business deployment: $2,500-$4,500 one-time. Pre-configured Mac Mini bundle: $6,500. Managed support: $800/month. These costs are typically recovered within 1-2 months if the agent saves you significant time.
How to reduce costs
Use Claude Sonnet 4.6 instead of Opus for most tasks (1.7x cheaper). Start new sessions regularly to avoid context accumulation. Set token budgets and spending limits. Use OpenRouter for multi-model routing and cost optimization. Disable skills you're not using. For heavy workloads, consider running local models via Ollama (free after hardware cost). Our cost optimization service configures all of this for you. Also see cost reduction tips and API costs explained.