OpenClaw on a Budget: Run a 24/7 AI Agent for Under $15/month

Everyone talks about AI agents. Few talk about the cost. Here's exactly what I spend running OpenClaw 24/7 with Claude as the backend model. Monthly Cost Breakdown Item Cost VPS (2GB RAM, 1 vCPU) $6/mo Claude API (Sonnet, moderate use) $5-8/mo Domain (optional) $1/mo Total $12-15/mo Compare that to hiring a human assistant ($3,000-8,000/mo) or even a ChatGPT Plus subscription ($20/mo that can't run autonomously). VPS Selection You don't need a beefy server. OpenClaw runs on Node.js and barely uses resources when idle. My recommendation: Start with a $6/mo VPS. If you're new, Vultr gives $300 free credit — that's 50 months of free hosting. For Chinese users: Tencent Cloud Lighthouse — overseas nodes from ¥30/mo Alibaba Cloud ECS — 28 global regions API Cost Optimization The biggest variable cost is the AI model API. Here's how to keep it low: Use Sonnet for daily tasks — 90% of tasks don't need Opus Set token limits — cap responses at 4K tokens for routine work Use cron wisely — don't p