[Feature]: Filter free models in catalog & manual price override for models without pricing metadata

[nordz0r]

Area

Catalog / models

What are you trying to accomplish?

I use OpenRouter and KiloCode providers which offer many free models alongside paid ones.
I want to:

1. Quickly filter and add only free models (cost = $0) when browsing the model catalog in the Dashboard.
2. Manually set or override the price (input/output cost per token) for models where pricing metadata is missing or incorrect — especially for newly added or self-hosted models.

This would help me:

• Avoid accidental cost when experimenting (only use free-tier models)
• Get accurate usage cost tracking for models that don't report pricing through their API

What prevents this today?

1. Free model filter: The Dashboard model catalog shows all discovered models without a way to filter by cost. For OpenRouter alone this can be 200+ models, and manually checking which are free requires cross-referencing the OpenRouter pricing page. There is no "free only" toggle or price-based filter.

2. Manual price override: When a model's pricing is not provided by the provider API (common with self-hosted Ollama models, some OpenRouter community models, KiloCode free-tier models), the usage cost in the Dashboard shows $0.00 or "unknown". There is no UI to manually set input/output token costs so that usage tracking reflects actual costs.

PR #3582 added pricing-policy resolution for usage tracking, but it works with provider-reported prices only — there is no manual override mechanism exposed in the GUI or CLI.

What should OpenCodex do?

1. Free model filter (catalog/dashboard):

   • Add a toggle or filter option in the model catalog view: "Show only free models" (where both input and output cost = 0).
   • For providers that report pricing metadata (OpenRouter, KiloCode), use it to classify models as free/paid.
   • The filter should work during initial model discovery (adding a new provider) and in the existing model management view.

2. Manual price override (per-model setting):

   • In the model detail/edit view (or a new "Pricing" column in the model list), allow the user to manually set:
     • Input cost per 1M tokens
     • Output cost per 1M tokens
   • Manual overrides should take precedence over provider-reported prices in usage cost calculations.
   • Overrides should persist in the local configuration and survive catalog re-sync.
   • A visual indicator (e.g., pencil icon or "custom" badge) should show when a model has manually overridden pricing.

Example usage or interface

Dashboard model catalog view with free filter:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Provider: openrouter                           │
│  [✓] Show only free models    [Search: ___]     │
│                                                 │
│  Model                        Cost     Status   │
│  ─────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│  google/gemma-3-1b-it:free    $0.00    [✓]      │
│  meta-llama/llama-4-scout     $0.00    [✓]      │
│  deepseek/deepseek-r1:free    $0.00    [ ]      │
│  ...                                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Manual price override in model settings:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Model: ollama/my-custom-model                  │
│                                                 │
│  Pricing:  ○ Auto (from provider)               │
│            ● Manual override                    │
│                                                 │
│  Input:  [___0.50___] per 1M tokens             │
│  Output: [___1.50___] per 1M tokens             │
│                                                 │
│  [Save]  [Reset to auto]                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

CLI equivalent:

# Set custom pricing for a model
ocx model set-price ollama/my-model --input 0.50 --output 1.50

# List only free models from a provider
ocx model list --provider openrouter --free-only

Alternatives or workarounds

Current workarounds:

1. Free filter: Manually cross-reference OpenRouter's /api/v1/models endpoint or pricing page, then individually toggle off paid models in the Dashboard. This is tedious with 200+ models and breaks on every catalog re-sync.
2. Price override: No workaround exists — models with missing pricing always show $0.00 in usage, making cost tracking unreliable for mixed free/paid setups.

Additional context

• OpenRouter API provides pricing metadata in its /api/v1/models response (fields: pricing.prompt, pricing.completion), making free-model detection straightforward for this provider.
• KiloCode also reports pricing via its model listing API.
• This feature would significantly improve UX for budget-conscious users and teams using OpenCodex with multiple providers.
• Related PRs: fix(usage): distinguish unresolved fallback models and reject missing policies #3582 (pricing policy), feat(providers): remove catalog models and retain default-only sync #3659 (model removal/visibility), [Feature]: Make truncated model picker labels distinguishable (provider compaction or model-first order) #3569 (model picker UX)

Checks

• I searched existing issues and documentation.
• This request describes a concrete OpenCodex workflow rather than merely naming a desired technology.
• I removed secrets and personal data.

[nordz0r]

Splitting into two separate feature requests for better tracking.