Cost Explorer

Every dollar.Every repo.Accounted for.

Real-time AI cost tracking with a full breakdown per repository, per developer, and per branch. Plus spike alerts that reach you before the bill does.

Start for free See the breakdown
The problem

Your AI bill is one number with no story behind it.

  1. A single monthly invoice, zero attribution.
  2. No idea which repo or team is burning the tokens.
  3. Spikes land on the bill, not in real time.
  4. No way to tie spend to a feature, branch, or ticket.
  5. Budgets blown days before anyone notices.
NewCost Explorer · works alongside Lineman

Real-time visibility into your team's AI spend.

Lineman cuts your token bill in half. Cost Explorer is its companion - a live, granular view of exactly where what's left is going, for the people who own the budget.

Real-time monitoringA live view of what your team is spending right now, across every project.
Total visibilityAnswer "where did the AI budget go?" down to a single branch or feature.
Risk under controlCatch bursts, unauthorised use, and out-of-hours spend the instant they happen.
Real-time, not next-day

Anthropic tells you what you spent. We show what you're spending.

The provider console gives a finance lead a single number, a day late. Cost Explorer gives them the whole picture, as it happens.

Real-time AI spend monitoring capabilities: provider console versus Cost Explorer
CapabilityProvider consoleCost Explorer
Reporting latency~24 hoursReal-time
Spend per project / repo
Spend per branch & feature
Cost-burst alerts
Out-of-hours / misuse flags
Per-developer attributionAggregate onlyItemised
Audit-ready export
Drill all the way down

From a single bill to a single feature.

Four projects shouldn't mean one number. Cost Explorer attributes every token to a project, a repo, a branch - even the individual feature being built on it.

checkout-service$5,210
main$1,840.00
feat/apple-pay$2,090.00
Wallet SDK integration$1,120.00
Payment sheet UI$612.00
Sandbox test fixtures$358.00
fix/tax-rounding$1,280.00
mobile-app$3,640
main$1,200.00
feat/offline-mode$2,440.00
data-pipeline$2,510
main$1,510.00
feat/dedupe-events$1,000.00
marketing-site$1,120
main$980.00
feat/add-cta-buttonexample$42.18
Add button component$24.40
Wire click tracking$11.78
Copy + a11y pass$6.00
feat/hero-refresh$98.00
Catch it as it happens

Get pinged the moment spend spikes.

Set a threshold per team, project, or developer. The instant a cost burst crosses it, Cost Explorer tells you - so a runaway agent is a notification, not a line on next month's invoice.

Daily spend vs threshold · last 15 days2 bursts flagged
$717$358$0threshold $500$520$640
⚠ Day 13 · checkout-service hit $640⚠ Day 10 · mobile-app hit $520✓ Alert sent within 60s of crossing
Nothing slips through

See the spend that shouldn't be happening.

Company AI resources used on a personal repo? Spend racking up at 3am, or all weekend? Cost Explorer surfaces it automatically - fully reported for audit, which the provider console can't do.

SeverityDeveloperTargetCostFlag
JLJordan LeeSat 02:14repo jordan/side-hustle$84.20Non-company repo
PMPriya M.Sun 23:48branch feat/personal-bot$51.60Weekend + late
ACAlex ChoWed 03:02mobile-app · main$38.90Out of hours
RTRiley T.Fri 01:37repo riley/ml-playground$122.40Non-company repo
DODevin O.Thu 22:11checkout-service$29.10Out of hours
Coming soon

Cost reporting, right inside your tickets.

Connect your tracker and every branch tied to a ticket gets its AI cost written back automatically - no spreadsheet exports, no reconciliation. Reporting where the work already lives.

  • JiraAuto-post AI cost onto the issue tied to each branch - itemised in the ticket your PM already reads.Soon
  • LinearEvery Linear issue picks up the spend of its linked branch, so cost lives next to the work.Soon
  • GitHub IssuesCost for every branch lands on its linked GitHub issue, right where your team triages work.Soon
  • monday.comPush branch-level cost into a monday board column for finance-friendly roll-ups.Soon
  • Azure DevOpsBranch spend rolls up onto the linked Azure Boards work item for sprint-level cost visibility.Soon
  • GitLabEach GitLab issue inherits the AI cost of its linked branch, with no exports or reconciliation.Soon
  • AsanaPush branch-level cost into an Asana task field so non-engineers see spend in context.Soon
  • ClickUpWrite AI cost back to the ClickUp task tied to a branch for finance-friendly roll-ups.Soon

Want early access to an integration? Tell us which tracker you use →

What makes it different

See spend the way you organise work.

Most tools hand you one number. Lineman attributes every dollar of AI spend to the repository, developer, and branch it came from, so you know exactly where the cost went.

By repositoryWhich codebases cost the most.
  • web-platform$1,240
  • billing-service$880
  • mobile-app$560
  • infra-tooling$310
By developerSpend per engineer, fairly attributed.
  • alex$920
  • sam$740
  • priya$610
  • jordan$430
By branch & featureDown to the ticket you shipped.
  • feat/checkout-v2$680
  • fix/auth-flow$420
  • feat/search-rerank$360
  • chore/deps-bump$190

Filter by repo, branch, developer, or time window (last 24h, 7 days, or 30 days). Illustrative figures.

Real-time

Catch a cost spike in minutes, not on the invoice.

Lineman watches spend in 15-minute windows and alerts you the moment it jumps above your budget or your recent baseline. No waiting for the monthly statement.

Cost spike detectedSpend hit $48.20 in the 15-minute window starting Jun 11, 2:15 PM, well above your recent baseline of $6.40 per 15 minutes.Triggered on billing-service, branch feat/checkout-v2
Features & benefits

Full visibility.Zero surprises.

Cost Explorer turns your AI spend from a single line on an invoice into an itemised, real-time picture you can act on.

Real-time cost tracking
Spend is metered continuously as your team works, not reconstructed at month end.
Catch overspend the moment it happens
Act on a runaway cost while it's still small, not after the invoice lands.
Per repo, developer & branch breakdown
Every call is attributed to the repository, developer, branch, and ticket it came from.
Attribute every dollar of AI spend
Answer 'what did this feature actually cost?' with a number, not a guess.
15-minute spike alerts
Lineman flags any window that runs above your budget or your recent baseline.
No surprise invoices
A spike reaches you in minutes, so the bill never blindsides you.
Savings tracking
See compression savings side by side with raw spend, in the same view.
See exactly what Lineman saves you
Quantify the ROI of running Lineman, per repo and per period.
CSV export
Export any filtered view of cost and savings to a CSV in one click.
Pipe cost into your BI and finance tools
Reconcile AI spend in the systems your finance team already uses.
Team-wide view
Roll spend up across every developer and repository in your org.
One picture for the whole team
Give engineering and finance a single, shared source of truth.
Questions, answered

Cost questions, answered.

If you have something we haven't covered, email us and we'll get back to you.

Every Lineman call is priced and recorded as you work, so Cost Explorer reflects your real usage rather than an estimate. Spend and savings sit side by side in the same view.

14-day free trial

Stop guessing where your AI budget goes.

Install the Lineman plugin and your cost breakdown starts filling in right away, per repo, per developer, per branch. Spike alerts come switched on.

Start for free See pricing
✓ Real-time tracking·✓ Spike alerts included