Field notes · AI spend

The Burn Log

Notes on where the money goes: token mechanics, provider dashboards, and the fine art of competitive overspending.

• August 10, 2026 · 4 min readWhat is burnmaxxing?The meme, the leaderboard, and why verified burn beats vibes. A field guide to competitive AI overspending.
• August 10, 2026 · 6 min readWhy your AI API bill is higher than you thinkOutput pricing, resent context, agent loops, cache reads. Four mechanics that quietly multiply your bill.
• August 10, 2026 · 5 min readHow to track AI spend across OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter and xAIFour providers, four dashboards, zero shared format. Getting to one number for your total burn.
• August 10, 2026 · 5 min readHow many tokens does Claude Code actually burn?Your agent has been keeping receipts the whole time. Reading ~/.claude and pricing out the damage.