Argus compared
Argus meters spend, balances and rate limits across every API provider you pay. It isn't an LLM tracing tool. These are the tools people actually weigh it against, including where they're the better choice.
OpenAI, Anthropic and OpenRouter consoles are authoritative and free. Where they're enough, and where checking ten of them stops working.
Polling balance endpoints yourself is a weekend project. Here's the honest list of what it takes and what you end up maintaining.
Ramp reads OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI vendors' admin APIs daily for finance teams. Argus reads every metered API hourly for the developers and agents spending it.
Vantage puts OpenAI, Anthropic and OpenRouter costs next to your cloud bill. Argus watches balances, runway and rate limits across the long tail of APIs.
Enterprise FinOps platforms that ingest OpenAI and Anthropic costs for allocation and unit economics. When you need one, and when you need a meter.
Connect a provider key, point Claude Code or Cursor at the Argus MCP server, and ask what the last run cost.