Track monthly OpenAI token usage with Google Sheets and Gmail reports

Who's this for Finance teams, AI developers, product managers, and business owners who need to monitor and control OpenAI API costs across different models and projects. If you're using GPT-4, GPT-3.5, or other OpenAI models and want to track spending patterns, identify cost optimization opportunities, and generate stakeholder reports, this workflow is for you.

What it does This workflow automatically tracks your OpenAI token usage on a monthly basis, breaks down costs by model and date, stores the data in Google Sheets with automatic cost calculations, and emails PDF reports to stakeholders. It transforms raw API usage data into actionable insights, helping you understand which models are driving costs, identify usage trends over time, and maintain budget accountability. The workflow runs completely hands-free once configured, generating comprehensive monthly reports without manual intervention.

How it works The workflow executes automatically on the 5th of each month and follows these steps:

Creates a new Google Sheet from your template with the naming format "TokenTracking[Month][Year]" Fetches the previous month's OpenAI usage data via the OpenAI Admin API Transforms raw API responses into a clean daily breakdown showing usage by model Appends the data to Google Sheets with columns for date, model, input tokens, and output tokens Your Google Sheets formulas automatically calculate costs based on OpenAI's pricing for each model Exports the completed report as both PDF and Excel formats Emails the PDF report to designated stakeholders with a summary message Archives the Excel file to Google Drive for long-term recordkeeping and historical analysis

Requirements

OpenAI account with Admin API access (required to access organization usage endpoints) Google Sheets template pre-configured with cost calculation formulas Google Drive for report storage and archiving Gmail account for sending email notifications n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud) with the following credentials configured:

OpenAI API credentials Google Sheets OAuth2 Google Drive OAuth2 Gmail OAuth2

Setup instructions 1. Create your Google Sheets template Set up a Google Sheet with these columns: