The Agency AI Billing Problem
You run agents for 10 clients. All their LLM costs hit one API bill. How do you split it? Right now, most agencies either:
- Eat the costs: Roll AI into general overhead. Margins shrink as agent usage grows.
- Guess: Estimate per-client costs and hope it balances out. It doesn't.
- Overcharge: Add a flat "AI surcharge" that might not reflect actual usage. Clients get suspicious.
None of these work. You need per-client cost attribution — and ClawHQ provides it automatically.
Setting Up Per-Client Cost Tracking
Tag each agent with its client:
// Agent OTLP attributes
attributes: {
'client.name': 'acme-corp',
'client.project': 'content-q1',
}
ClawHQ groups all costs by client automatically. Each client gets:
- Total spend for the billing period
- Breakdown by agent and model
- Cost per task type
- Trend vs. previous periods
Generating Client Invoices
At the end of each billing period:
- Go to ClawHQ → Reports → Client Cost Report
- Select client and date range
- Export as PDF or CSV
- Apply your markup
- Attach to client invoice
Total time: 5 minutes per client. Compare that to hours of manual calculation.
Setting Per-Client Budgets
Never overspend on a client's behalf. Set budgets per client:
- Monthly spend limit per client
- Alert at 80% so you can proactively communicate with the client
- Suspend agents at 100% to prevent overruns
Protecting Your Margins
ClawHQ's margin tracking shows:
- Your actual cost per client
- What you billed the client
- Your margin percentage
- Clients where margins are thin and need repricing
Data replaces guesswork. You know exactly which clients are profitable and which need attention.
Pricing Models for AI Services
- Cost-plus: Actual AI cost + fixed markup (e.g., 3x). ClawHQ provides the accurate base.
- Fixed retainer: Monthly fee regardless of usage. Use ClawHQ data to set the right price.
- Per-deliverable: Fixed price per blog post, report, etc. Use ClawHQ benchmarks to price profitably.
ClawHQ for Agencies: Team Plan ($49/mo)
The Team plan is built for agencies:
- Up to 100 agents across all clients
- Per-client cost isolation and reporting
- Team cost allocation
- Unlimited team members
- Advanced reporting and export
