Cost Tracking

AI Transcription Notepad tracks API usage in the Cost tab via OpenRouter's API endpoints.

OpenRouter Cost Data

The app queries three OpenRouter endpoints:

• /api/v1/key returns usage for your specific API key (not your entire account), showing today's, this week's, and this month's spend.
• /api/v1/credits returns your account balance, displayed in the status bar and Cost tab.
• /api/v1/activity returns per-model usage for the last 30 days.

Balance data is polled in the background at a configurable interval (default: 30 minutes). Configure the polling interval in Settings → Misc.

Status Bar

The status bar shows Today: $X.XXXX (N) | Bal: $X.XX where N is the transcription count and Bal is your OpenRouter credit balance.

Reducing Costs

Enable Voice Activity Detection to remove silence before upload, which reduces the audio size sent to the API. Gemini 3 Flash is already the most cost-effective option. Keep recordings focused rather than leaving long pauses.

Local Storage

Cost data is stored in ~/.config/voice-notepad-v3/usage/ as daily JSON files. The Mongita database also stores per-transcription token counts and estimated costs.