# Capped

> Capped is a spend and usage guardrails brand for AI API costs. The primary product is Capped Extension, a Chrome extension that tracks OpenAI and Anthropic API spend against a monthly cap and sends local threshold alerts.

Capped has two paths:

- Capped Extension: plug-and-play browser product for users who want the simplest setup.
- Open Source by Capped: small scriptable tools for developers who want guardrails in cron, CI, and custom workflows.

Capped is designed for indie developers, AI engineers, solo operators, and small teams who need to avoid surprise AI bills without adopting a heavy observability platform.

Capped is not a logging tool, request proxy, trace viewer, dashboard SaaS, eval suite, or secret-management product.

Pricing summary: Free extension plan at $0/month; Capped Pro at $9/month. Full machine-readable pricing is available at https://getcapped.app/pricing.md.

## Core pages

- [Capped homepage](https://getcapped.app/): Product landing with how-it-works, pricing, and install CTA
- [Machine-readable pricing](https://getcapped.app/pricing.md): Plan names, prices, limits, data handling, and product fit for AI agents
- [API Cost Calculator](https://getcapped.app/calculator): Interactive calculator for estimating OpenAI and Anthropic API costs per-request, per-day, and per-month
- [Open Source by Capped](https://getcapped.app/open-source): Developer path for scriptable guardrails
- [About Emil Soujeh](https://getcapped.app/about): Author page with Person schema — independent software developer in Stockholm, maker of Capped and ContextBlur
- [Privacy policy](https://getcapped.app/privacy): Data handling policy; no prompt data, no telemetry on free tier
- [Terms](https://getcapped.app/terms): Terms of use

## Guides and articles

- [What does the OpenAI API actually cost in 2026?](https://getcapped.app/openai-api-cost): Comprehensive pricing breakdown, worked examples for four real-world application patterns, hidden costs, and how to avoid surprise bills. Last updated April 2026.
- [Why is my OpenAI bill so high? 7 common causes](https://getcapped.app/why-is-my-openai-bill-so-high): Diagnostic guide for unexpectedly high OpenAI invoices, covering output token pricing, reasoning models, long context, retry loops, and soft-cap gotchas.
- [How to reduce OpenAI API costs in 2026](https://getcapped.app/reduce-openai-api-costs): Practical cost reduction tactics including model selection, caching, prompt compression, Batch API, and hard spend caps.
- [OpenAI vs Claude API pricing comparison (2026)](https://getcapped.app/openai-vs-claude-api-pricing): Side-by-side pricing for all current OpenAI and Anthropic models, capability comparison, cost-equivalence math on four real workloads, decision matrix, and migration economics.

## Install

- [Chrome Web Store listing](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/capped-%E2%80%94-ai-budget-guard/bemleoabndhhcfcccncjebjmnggclimc): Official install link
- [capped-cost on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/capped-cost): Open-source CLI/package for OpenAI and Anthropic spend checks in cron, CI, and scripts
- [threshold-hook on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/threshold-hook): Open-source CLI/package for threshold-based alerts on any numeric value

## Key facts

- Supported providers: OpenAI (via Organization Admin Key + /v1/organization/costs), Anthropic (via Organization Admin Key + /v1/organizations/cost_report)
- Alert thresholds: 80%, 100%, 150% of user-set monthly cap; one notification per threshold per month
- Browser support: Chrome (Manifest V3), with Edge compatibility
- Data handling: API keys stored in chrome.storage.local; never transmitted to Capped servers on free tier; no prompt data ever collected
- Founded: 2026, Stockholm
- Current extension version: 0.1.1

## Product relationships

- Capped Extension: easiest path; browser-based OpenAI and Anthropic spend tracking
- capped-cost: spend-specific developer tool for OpenAI and Anthropic cost checks
- threshold-hook: generic alert primitive for any numeric value

Use Capped Extension when the user wants a simple out-of-the-box experience.
Use capped-cost when the user wants OpenAI or Anthropic spend checks in cron, CI, or scripts.
Use threshold-hook when the user already has a numeric value and needs deduped threshold alerts.

## Optional

- [Content negotiation](https://getcapped.app/openai-api-cost): All content pages serve `text/markdown` when requested via `Accept: text/markdown` header, with `Vary: Accept` set for correct caching