Which API should you use with goose?

For daily goose sessions on one monthly price, the best API is a flat-rate OpenAI-compatible provider such as Standard Compute, added as a goose custom provider at https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1, from $19 a month with a $20 compute budget. goose's onboarding recommends Agent Router by Tetrate, which starts you on $10 of free credits and then bills per token, and OpenRouter is pay-per-use too. A local model through Ollama costs nothing per token if your hardware can run it. goose itself is free, so the provider is the whole bill.

Light or occasional use

For a few sessions a week, Tetrate's free credits and then a pay-per-token router will likely cost the least. If you have a capable GPU, try a local model on a real task before paying for anything.

One fixed monthly bill

Once goose runs long recipes or extension-heavy sessions every day, a Standard Compute key keeps the bill at the plan price. Requests stop with HTTP 402 when the monthly compute budget is used; running requests finish and nothing is billed on top.

API and subscription options for goose

Prices and allowances can change. goose's custom provider format, key storage and the Tetrate credit offer come from goose's provider and config-file docs, read on October 14, 2026. goose: providers · goose: config files. Spot an error? Tell us.

Add Standard Compute as a goose custom provider

{
  "name": "standardcompute",
  "engine": "openai",
  "display_name": "Standard Compute",
  "api_key_env": "STANDARDCOMPUTE_API_KEY",
  "base_url": "https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1",
  "models": [
    { "name": "standardcompute", "context_limit": 200000 },
    { "name": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5", "context_limit": 200000 }
  ],
  "supports_streaming": true
}

Then export STANDARDCOMPUTE_API_KEY with your key and start goose with GOOSE_PROVIDER=standardcompute GOOSE_MODEL=standardcompute. goose configure → Custom Providers → Add A Custom Provider → OpenAI Compatible writes the same file for you.

goose questions

Why does goose say "No api key passed in" with my custom OpenAI-compatible provider?

Because goose does not read provider keys from config.yaml: a key written there is ignored. goose reads a custom provider's key from the system keychain, or from the environment variable named in the provider file's api_key_env. When you add the provider with goose configure, goose names it custom_<name> and the variable CUSTOM_<NAME>_API_KEY, so a provider called standardcompute becomes custom_standardcompute with CUSTOM_STANDARDCOMPUTE_API_KEY. Export that variable, or re-enter the key in goose configure, and the 401 goes away.

Is goose free to use?

Yes. goose is free and open source (Apache 2.0), and its docs note that not every provider has a free tier, so the model is what you pay for. On Standard Compute that is one plan price from $19 a month with a $20 compute budget; at the budget, new requests get HTTP 402 instead of an overage bill.