> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://oodlz-ai-studio.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://oodlz-ai-studio.gitbook.io/docs/architecture-and-stack/cost-transparency.md).

# Cost Transparency

Per-piece-of-content costs, monthly recurring costs, and API usage — itemised in plain numbers, no surprise charges.

> **Every cost itemised — per topic run, per article, per repurpose, per inbound message, per metrics run.**

The system runs on usage-based pricing — no per-seat licenses, no minimum spend, no annual commitments. The cost table below shows what each piece of activity actually costs at runtime, drawn from production usage of the Oodlz pipeline.

## Per-Activity Costs

| Activity              | Cost                    | Cadence                                              |
| --------------------- | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Topics discovery run  | Under $2 per run        | Monthly                                              |
| Article generation    | Under $1 per article    | Per approved topic                                   |
| Social repurposing    | Near-zero per article   | Per published article (image generation is the bulk) |
| Inbound message reply | Cents per message       | Per inbound message                                  |
| Reporting summary     | $0.01–$0.05 per channel | Monthly per connected channel                        |

For a brand publishing 10 articles a month with full social repurposing, the per-piece cost averages around $0.90 across the article and its 5 social variants — measured production usage from the Oodlz pipeline itself.

## Recurring Costs

| Item                  | Cost        | Notes                                                                                                            |
| --------------------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Zernio subscription   | \~$20/month | Social scheduling and listening across every connected platform                                                  |
| DataForSEO            | Usage-based | Per-keyword query; the Topics monthly run uses fewer credits than 1 month of typical content-strategist research |
| FLUX 1.1 Pro (fal.ai) | Usage-based | Per-image generation; scales linearly with article volume                                                        |
| OpenRouter            | Usage-based | LLM token consumption across producers                                                                           |
| OpenAI direct         | Usage-based | Inbound agent + embeddings for knowledge upload                                                                  |
| Tavily                | Free tier   | 1,000 API calls per month included                                                                               |
| Airtable              | Free tier   | Below 1,000 records per base                                                                                     |
| WordPress             | Existing    | Brand's existing WordPress install                                                                               |
| Pinecone              | Free tier   | Per-brand index, well within free-tier limits                                                                    |
| Redis (Upstash)       | Free tier   | Conversation memory and dedup cache, well within free-tier limits                                                |

## Why The Costs Are What They Are

* **LLM cost discipline** — the inbound agent runs a cheap classifier on every message before any expensive call fires. Casual compliments, harmful input, and off-topic messages never reach a frontier model.
* **Image cost discipline** — image generation only runs when the topic is approved and the article publishes. No speculative renders.
* **Free-tier coverage** — most utility services (Tavily, Airtable, Pinecone, Redis) sit on free tiers at typical brand volume.
* **Usage-based across the stack** — scales linearly with brand activity. No fixed minimums, no idle charges.

## What You Get

* Itemised costs per activity — every piece of content traces to a known unit cost.
* Free-tier coverage on the utility layer — Tavily, Airtable, Pinecone, Redis all included.
* Single subscription line — Zernio is the only fixed monthly cost outside usage-based APIs.
* No per-seat pricing — the system has 1 user (the brand) and any number of agents running on its behalf.
* No setup or licensing fees on the workflow layer — the pipeline is included in the system.