LLM cost monitoring without the server
Langfuse is a powerful LLMOps platform — but self-hosting it costs $50–100/mo in infrastructure before you pay for a single API call. LLMeter tracks costs with a read-only key, no server required, in 30 seconds.
No credit card required. Free plan never expires.
Why teams switch for cost monitoring
Langfuse is excellent for tracing, evals, and prompt management. For pure cost monitoring the setup overhead is significant.
Infrastructure overhead
Langfuse self-hosting needs PostgreSQL, Redis, and an app server. A minimal production stack costs $50–100/mo before you track a single dollar of LLM spend.
SDK + code changes
Langfuse requires the SDK and LANGFUSE_* env vars in every service. LLMeter uses a read-only provider API key — nothing changes in your application code.
Tracing captures prompts
Langfuse's tracing model captures prompts and completions by design. LLMeter only reads billing data from the provider's read-only API — your prompts never leave your stack.
Migrate in 3 steps
No Docker. No Postgres. No SDK install. Your application code stays unchanged.
Sign up for LLMeter
Create a free account. No credit card, no server, no Docker required.
Paste a read-only API key
Generate a read-only key for OpenAI, Anthropic, or any supported provider and paste it in. LLMeter pulls cost data directly — nothing in your codebase changes.
Remove the Langfuse SDK
Uninstall langfuse and remove LANGFUSE_PUBLIC_KEY / LANGFUSE_SECRET_KEY env vars. If you only used Langfuse for cost tracking, you're done. Keep it if you rely on tracing or eval features.
The cost of monitoring costs
Self-hosting Langfuse to save money on LLM bills can end up costing more than the LLM spend itself at early stages.
Langfuse self-hosted (typical small team)
- Managed PostgreSQL: ~$25/mo
- Redis: ~$15/mo
- App server (2vCPU): ~$20/mo
- Backups + monitoring: ~$10/mo
- Engineer setup time: 4–8h (one-time)
- Total: ~$70/mo + setup time
LLMeter
- No database to provision
- No Redis to manage
- No server to deploy
- No backups to configure
- Setup time: 30 seconds
- Total: $0 (free plan) or $19/mo flat
Langfuse vs LLMeter
For cost monitoring specifically — the comparison most teams care about.
| Feature | Langfuse | LLMeter |
|---|---|---|
| Setup method | Self-hosted server or Cloud ($59/mo) | Read-only API key (no code changes) |
| Time to first dashboard | 30–90 min (Docker/K8s) or Cloud signup | 30 seconds |
| Infrastructure required | PostgreSQL + Redis + app server | None |
| Code changes required | Yes (SDK + LANGFUSE_* env vars) | None |
| Open source | Yes (MIT) | Yes (AGPL-3.0) |
| Self-hosting cost | $50–100/mo infra (typical small team) | Free (no server needed) |
| Multi-provider support | Whatever SDK supports | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, Cohere, Together AI, Fireworks AI, Perplexity AI + more |
| Prompt/data access | Captures prompts, completions, traces | Never sees prompts |
| Tracing / eval features | Yes (full LLMOps suite) | No (cost-focused, on purpose) |
| Per-customer attribution | Via session/user metadata | Built-in |
| Flat pricing | Usage-based (events) above free tier | Flat tier (Free / $19 / $49) |
Langfuse Cloud pricing: free up to 50K events/mo, then $59/mo (Team, Apr 2026). LLMeter: free (1 provider) / $19 (Pro) / $49 (Team).
Migration FAQ
Is LLMeter a full Langfuse replacement?
For LLM cost monitoring, yes. For distributed tracing, prompt evaluation, dataset management, and LLM debugging — no. LLMeter is intentionally scoped to the cost layer. If your main use of Langfuse is "how much am I spending and on which models," LLMeter replaces it cleanly without the infrastructure overhead. Keep Langfuse for evals and traces if those matter to you.
Why would I move off Langfuse for cost monitoring?
Three common reasons: (1) Self-hosting Langfuse adds $50–100/mo in infrastructure (Postgres, Redis, app server) just to watch a spend number. (2) The SDK requires code changes and captures prompt content — some teams have compliance constraints that make that uncomfortable. (3) LLMeter's setup is 30 seconds vs 30–90 minutes for a Langfuse deployment.
Does LLMeter capture my prompts or completions?
No. LLMeter reads usage and billing data from your provider's read-only API. It never proxies live calls and never sees prompt text or completion content. Langfuse's tracing model captures prompts and outputs by design — LLMeter's does not.
How does infrastructure cost compare?
Langfuse self-hosted: $50–100/mo minimum for a production-grade stack (managed Postgres ~$25, Redis ~$15, app server ~$20+, backups, monitoring). Langfuse Cloud: free up to 50K events/mo, then $59/mo for teams. LLMeter: $0 infrastructure — you pay $0 (free plan) or $19/$49/mo flat with no separate infra.
Does LLMeter work if I'm already using Langfuse for tracing?
Yes — you can run both in parallel. Keep Langfuse for traces and evals; add LLMeter for cost dashboards, budget alerts, and multi-provider spend attribution. They don't conflict because LLMeter uses read-only API keys, not SDK instrumentation.
Is LLMeter open source?
Yes. AGPL-3.0. You can inspect the source, self-host it (though you likely won't need to — there's no server to run), and contribute. The entire cost-monitoring stack runs serverless on Vercel with a hosted Supabase database.
Track LLM costs without standing up a server.
Free for 1 provider, forever. $19/mo for unlimited providers. $49/mo for the whole team. No infrastructure, no SDK, no prompt capture.
No credit card required. Free plan never expires.