# Repair — The $5 video bill a pricing API said was $1.86

A flowingkhaos fix · monitoring · updated 17 Oct 2026
Source: https://flowingkhaos.com/fixes/fal-pricing-api-under-priced-omni-drafts/repair

Two changes, both small.

**1. Price by resolution.** The Omni door now multiplies the API's rate by a factor per output resolution: 1 for 360p, 10⁄3 for 720p, 5 for 1080p. The factors are the model page's three prices divided by the API's one. KOS commit 3d35df45. The ceiling is unchanged; it now sits on an estimate that matches the bill.

**2. Show the day's spend where the work happens.** A small Claude Code mod (a plugin that can draw in the terminal) now shows the running sum of the day's estimates in the status line. It reads the same per-turn log the door writes. A gap between that number and the fal balance is visible the same afternoon instead of at the next top-up. Vault commit 1288d8c.

**3. Read the bill, not the estimate (8 October).** An estimate only sees the calls that pass through our doors. The console's usage dashboard now asks fal's usage API what it charged, with an admin key, and adds it to the cost, per model and per key. When that read fails, the dashboard says "fal spend NOT included" instead of showing $0. The status-line mod reads the same bill since the session started, at most once a minute. KOS commit def97564, vault commit dd89895.

Checked the same evening: seven days on the dashboard, $1.449; fal's bill read directly, $1.449. The grade moves from corroborated to confirmed.