Cheapest Agent Configs That Still Work
10 hand-crafted configs organized by monthly spend. Each one teaches a different routing pattern. Copy the one closest to your setup and adjust from there.
How to use this: Find the tier that matches your budget. Copy the config snippet. Paste it into your openclaw.json. Adjust channel types and workspace files for your setup. The model routing strategy is the part that matters most.
Under $5
The $3/month Minimalist
One model. One channel. Zero waste.
$3/mo
99% less than default
What it handles
- +Calendar reminders
- +Quick lookups
- +Daily weather brief
- +Simple notifications
Routing strategy
All Haiku. 3-hour heartbeats. Minimal workspace files.
Assumes: ~5 msgs/day, 1 channel, 8 heartbeats/day, 0.5 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Haiku handles 90% of personal assistant tasks just fine. The lesson: start cheap. Upgrade when you actually hit a limit.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 180
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md"
]
}
}The $4/month Night Watchman
Monitoring that doesn't cost like monitoring.
$4/mo
98% less than default
What it handles
- +Server uptime checks
- +Alert routing
- +Log summarization
- +On-call paging
Routing strategy
Haiku for all checks. 2-hour heartbeats. Near-empty workspace context.
Assumes: ~3 msgs/day, 1 channel, 12 heartbeats/day, 0 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Monitoring is classification, not reasoning. 'Is this alert real? Yes/No.' Haiku answers that question for fractions of a cent. You don't need GPT-4 to read a health check.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 120
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": []
}
}Under $15
The $3/month Minimalist
One model. One channel. Zero waste.
$3/mo
99% less than default
What it handles
- +Calendar reminders
- +Quick lookups
- +Daily weather brief
- +Simple notifications
Routing strategy
All Haiku. 3-hour heartbeats. Minimal workspace files.
Assumes: ~5 msgs/day, 1 channel, 8 heartbeats/day, 0.5 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Haiku handles 90% of personal assistant tasks just fine. The lesson: start cheap. Upgrade when you actually hit a limit.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 180
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md"
]
}
}The $4/month Night Watchman
Monitoring that doesn't cost like monitoring.
$4/mo
98% less than default
What it handles
- +Server uptime checks
- +Alert routing
- +Log summarization
- +On-call paging
Routing strategy
Haiku for all checks. 2-hour heartbeats. Near-empty workspace context.
Assumes: ~3 msgs/day, 1 channel, 12 heartbeats/day, 0 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Monitoring is classification, not reasoning. 'Is this alert real? Yes/No.' Haiku answers that question for fractions of a cent. You don't need GPT-4 to read a health check.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 120
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": []
}
}The $9/month Morning Brief
One smart task per day. Everything else stays dumb.
$9/mo
96% less than default
What it handles
- +Daily email digest
- +Agenda summary
- +News highlights
- +End-of-day wrap-up
Routing strategy
Haiku for heartbeats (every 60min). Sonnet for the 2 daily digest sub-agents. Haiku default for quick chat.
Assumes: ~10 msgs/day, 1 channel, 24 heartbeats/day, 2 Sonnet sub-agents/day
The lesson
You only need Sonnet for the tasks that benefit from it. Run the daily digest on Sonnet. Run everything else on Haiku. Cost falls 60% vs running Sonnet everywhere.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"monitoring": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $13/month Triage Bot
95% of the work on 5% of the budget.
$13/mo
95% less than default
What it handles
- +Support ticket routing
- +Email priority scoring
- +Slack thread summaries
- +Urgent escalation alerts
Routing strategy
Haiku for triage (95% of traffic). Sonnet reserved for escalations only. 30-min heartbeats on Haiku. 1 channel.
Assumes: ~20 msgs/day, 1 channel, 48 heartbeats/day, 1 Sonnet sub-agent/day
The lesson
Classification tasks are all the same: is this urgent? Which bucket does it go in? Haiku answers both questions. Save Sonnet for drafting the escalation reply.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"escalation": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}Under $30
The $3/month Minimalist
One model. One channel. Zero waste.
$3/mo
99% less than default
What it handles
- +Calendar reminders
- +Quick lookups
- +Daily weather brief
- +Simple notifications
Routing strategy
All Haiku. 3-hour heartbeats. Minimal workspace files.
Assumes: ~5 msgs/day, 1 channel, 8 heartbeats/day, 0.5 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Haiku handles 90% of personal assistant tasks just fine. The lesson: start cheap. Upgrade when you actually hit a limit.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 180
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md"
]
}
}The $4/month Night Watchman
Monitoring that doesn't cost like monitoring.
$4/mo
98% less than default
What it handles
- +Server uptime checks
- +Alert routing
- +Log summarization
- +On-call paging
Routing strategy
Haiku for all checks. 2-hour heartbeats. Near-empty workspace context.
Assumes: ~3 msgs/day, 1 channel, 12 heartbeats/day, 0 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Monitoring is classification, not reasoning. 'Is this alert real? Yes/No.' Haiku answers that question for fractions of a cent. You don't need GPT-4 to read a health check.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 120
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": []
}
}The $9/month Morning Brief
One smart task per day. Everything else stays dumb.
$9/mo
96% less than default
What it handles
- +Daily email digest
- +Agenda summary
- +News highlights
- +End-of-day wrap-up
Routing strategy
Haiku for heartbeats (every 60min). Sonnet for the 2 daily digest sub-agents. Haiku default for quick chat.
Assumes: ~10 msgs/day, 1 channel, 24 heartbeats/day, 2 Sonnet sub-agents/day
The lesson
You only need Sonnet for the tasks that benefit from it. Run the daily digest on Sonnet. Run everything else on Haiku. Cost falls 60% vs running Sonnet everywhere.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"monitoring": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $13/month Triage Bot
95% of the work on 5% of the budget.
$13/mo
95% less than default
What it handles
- +Support ticket routing
- +Email priority scoring
- +Slack thread summaries
- +Urgent escalation alerts
Routing strategy
Haiku for triage (95% of traffic). Sonnet reserved for escalations only. 30-min heartbeats on Haiku. 1 channel.
Assumes: ~20 msgs/day, 1 channel, 48 heartbeats/day, 1 Sonnet sub-agent/day
The lesson
Classification tasks are all the same: is this urgent? Which bucket does it go in? Haiku answers both questions. Save Sonnet for drafting the escalation reply.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"escalation": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $22/month Dev Copilot
Real coding help. Not Opus prices.
$22/mo
96% less than default
What it handles
- +Code review
- +PR summaries
- +Bug triage
- +Documentation drafts
- +GitHub issue responses
Routing strategy
Sonnet default for conversations. Haiku for heartbeats (60min). Sonnet for sub-agents. 2 channels (Telegram + Discord).
Assumes: ~20 msgs/day, 2 channels, 24 heartbeats/day, 2 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Sonnet handles 95% of coding tasks at 5x less than Opus. The default model is your highest-leverage setting. This config routes heartbeats to Haiku, saving $143/month vs Opus everywhere.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $27/month Research Desk
Trimmed context. Smart routing. Serious capability.
$27/mo
89% less than default
What it handles
- +Competitive research
- +Document summarization
- +Market analysis
- +Weekly intelligence reports
- +Source verification
Routing strategy
Sonnet default. Haiku heartbeats (60min). Sonnet sub-agents. Workspace trimmed to 4,000 tokens (saves 58% on context loading). 1 channel.
Assumes: ~25 msgs/day, 1 channel, 24 heartbeats/day, 3 sub-agents/day, 4k context
The lesson
Context loading is a per-turn tax. This config cuts workspace files from 9,600 to 4,000 tokens. That's 58% cheaper on every single message, heartbeat, and sub-agent. One audit session saves hundreds per month.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
],
"maxContextTokens": 4000
}
}Under $50
The $3/month Minimalist
One model. One channel. Zero waste.
$3/mo
99% less than default
What it handles
- +Calendar reminders
- +Quick lookups
- +Daily weather brief
- +Simple notifications
Routing strategy
All Haiku. 3-hour heartbeats. Minimal workspace files.
Assumes: ~5 msgs/day, 1 channel, 8 heartbeats/day, 0.5 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Haiku handles 90% of personal assistant tasks just fine. The lesson: start cheap. Upgrade when you actually hit a limit.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 180
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md"
]
}
}The $4/month Night Watchman
Monitoring that doesn't cost like monitoring.
$4/mo
98% less than default
What it handles
- +Server uptime checks
- +Alert routing
- +Log summarization
- +On-call paging
Routing strategy
Haiku for all checks. 2-hour heartbeats. Near-empty workspace context.
Assumes: ~3 msgs/day, 1 channel, 12 heartbeats/day, 0 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Monitoring is classification, not reasoning. 'Is this alert real? Yes/No.' Haiku answers that question for fractions of a cent. You don't need GPT-4 to read a health check.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 120
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": []
}
}The $9/month Morning Brief
One smart task per day. Everything else stays dumb.
$9/mo
96% less than default
What it handles
- +Daily email digest
- +Agenda summary
- +News highlights
- +End-of-day wrap-up
Routing strategy
Haiku for heartbeats (every 60min). Sonnet for the 2 daily digest sub-agents. Haiku default for quick chat.
Assumes: ~10 msgs/day, 1 channel, 24 heartbeats/day, 2 Sonnet sub-agents/day
The lesson
You only need Sonnet for the tasks that benefit from it. Run the daily digest on Sonnet. Run everything else on Haiku. Cost falls 60% vs running Sonnet everywhere.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"monitoring": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $13/month Triage Bot
95% of the work on 5% of the budget.
$13/mo
95% less than default
What it handles
- +Support ticket routing
- +Email priority scoring
- +Slack thread summaries
- +Urgent escalation alerts
Routing strategy
Haiku for triage (95% of traffic). Sonnet reserved for escalations only. 30-min heartbeats on Haiku. 1 channel.
Assumes: ~20 msgs/day, 1 channel, 48 heartbeats/day, 1 Sonnet sub-agent/day
The lesson
Classification tasks are all the same: is this urgent? Which bucket does it go in? Haiku answers both questions. Save Sonnet for drafting the escalation reply.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"escalation": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $22/month Dev Copilot
Real coding help. Not Opus prices.
$22/mo
96% less than default
What it handles
- +Code review
- +PR summaries
- +Bug triage
- +Documentation drafts
- +GitHub issue responses
Routing strategy
Sonnet default for conversations. Haiku for heartbeats (60min). Sonnet for sub-agents. 2 channels (Telegram + Discord).
Assumes: ~20 msgs/day, 2 channels, 24 heartbeats/day, 2 sub-agents/day
The lesson
Sonnet handles 95% of coding tasks at 5x less than Opus. The default model is your highest-leverage setting. This config routes heartbeats to Haiku, saving $143/month vs Opus everywhere.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $27/month Research Desk
Trimmed context. Smart routing. Serious capability.
$27/mo
89% less than default
What it handles
- +Competitive research
- +Document summarization
- +Market analysis
- +Weekly intelligence reports
- +Source verification
Routing strategy
Sonnet default. Haiku heartbeats (60min). Sonnet sub-agents. Workspace trimmed to 4,000 tokens (saves 58% on context loading). 1 channel.
Assumes: ~25 msgs/day, 1 channel, 24 heartbeats/day, 3 sub-agents/day, 4k context
The lesson
Context loading is a per-turn tax. This config cuts workspace files from 9,600 to 4,000 tokens. That's 58% cheaper on every single message, heartbeat, and sub-agent. One audit session saves hundreds per month.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 60
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
],
"maxContextTokens": 4000
}
}The $38/month Startup Operator
Opus for decisions. Sonnet for execution. Haiku for checks.
$38/mo
92% less than default
What it handles
- +Strategic planning sessions
- +Investor update drafts
- +Team communication
- +Roadmap analysis
- +Complex problem-solving
Routing strategy
Opus for main conversations (40/day). Sonnet for sub-agents. Haiku for heartbeats (30min). 2 channels.
Assumes: ~30 msgs/day, 2 channels, 48 heartbeats/day, 2 Sonnet sub-agents/day
The lesson
When you need Opus, run Opus. But keep Opus out of your heartbeats and sub-agents. This config keeps Opus where it matters and routes everything else down. Result: Opus-quality decisions at 60% of the naive Opus-everywhere cost.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"SOUL.md",
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}The $45/month Multi-Channel Commander
Three channels. Sonnet backbone. Haiku everywhere else.
$45/mo
94% less than default
What it handles
- +Cross-team coordination
- +Multi-platform notifications
- +Meeting scheduling
- +Project status tracking
- +Automated reports
Routing strategy
Sonnet default. Haiku heartbeats (30min). Sonnet sub-agents. 3 channels (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp).
Assumes: ~25 msgs/day, 3 channels, 48 heartbeats/day, 2 sub-agents/day
The lesson
3 channels multiplies every heartbeat cost. This config keeps heartbeats on Haiku, which turns that multiplier from a disaster into a minor line item. Without this routing, the same config costs $180+/month.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
},
{
"type": "whatsapp"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
]
}
}Power User
The $75/month AI-Native Founder
Full Opus capability. Engineered costs.
$75/mo
90% less than default
What it handles
- +Executive decision support
- +Deep research synthesis
- +Code architecture review
- +Fundraising prep
- +Strategic writing
- +Complex sub-agent workflows
Routing strategy
Opus for main conversations. Sonnet for sub-agents. Haiku for 30-min heartbeats. 3 channels. Trimmed workspace (5,000 tokens).
Assumes: ~40 msgs/day, 3 channels, 48 heartbeats/day, 3 Sonnet sub-agents/day, 5k context
The lesson
This is the right way to run Opus at scale. Smart routing and trimmed context keep a 3-channel Opus setup at $75 instead of $400+. Every dollar spent is on reasoning, not overhead.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 30
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"monitoring": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
},
{
"type": "whatsapp"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"SOUL.md",
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md"
],
"maxContextTokens": 5000
}
}The $110/month Fully Automated Office
Maximum throughput. Still not insane.
$110/mo
85% less than default
What it handles
- +24/7 customer support
- +Real-time data pipelines
- +Automated content production
- +Multi-step research workflows
- +Complex integrations
- +Proactive outreach
Routing strategy
Opus for conversations. Sonnet for most sub-agents. Haiku for heartbeats (15min) and classification. 3 channels. GPT-4o-mini for bulk data tasks.
Assumes: ~50 msgs/day, 3 channels, 96 heartbeats/day, 5 sub-agents/day
The lesson
High-frequency heartbeats (15min) on Haiku cost $16/month across 3 channels. The same config on Opus costs $432/month in heartbeats alone. This routing keeps 96 daily heartbeat calls from destroying your budget.
openclaw.json snippet
{
"defaultModel": "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
"heartbeat": {
"model": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"interval": 15
},
"routing": {
"subagent": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
"classification": "anthropic/claude-haiku-3-5",
"bulk_data": "openai/gpt-4o-mini"
},
"channels": [
{
"type": "telegram"
},
{
"type": "discord"
},
{
"type": "whatsapp"
}
],
"workspace": {
"files": [
"SOUL.md",
"USER.md",
"AGENTS.md",
"HEARTBEAT.md",
"TOOLS.md"
]
}
}Not sure which tier you are in?
Paste your current config into the analyzer. It reads your actual settings and tells you exactly what each one costs per month. Then compare to the leaderboard configs above.