WhyC / The Receipt

cost-conscious build console · v0.4-mvp
$0/mo verified
run r-20260506T122526Z · 2026-05-06 · margin: free-tier only

They burned $47k in 6 months and shipped nothing.
We shipped this for $0.04.

Same Cloud Run. Same Gemini. Same Phoenix. Different discipline.
Every line below is a real billable event — or a free-tier hit, in green.

scale-to-zero free-tier first no SaaS subs SQLite local cache

total spend, this generation
$0.043
YC-co avg burn: $7,800/mo  ·  ratio: 1 : 181,395

Step 1 — paste a workatastartup.com URL est. $0.00–$0.06

$0.043 spent cap: $1.00 / run · auto-kill at 90%

Step 2 — itemized ledger (live trace from Phoenix MCP) free tier: 50k spans/mo

node · vendorunitstiercost
spec_extract  ·  Gemini 2.5 Flash 3,140 in / 412 out tok free quota $0.0000
design_tokens  ·  Gemini 2.5 Flash 1,820 in / 980 out tok free quota $0.0000
nextjs_codegen  ·  Gemini 2.5 Pro 8,210 in / 4,402 out tok paid · 1.2k req left $0.0312
cloud_run deploy  ·  min-instances=0 1 build · 0 idle 2M req/mo free $0.0000
secret_manager 3 secrets · 6 ops 6 secrets free $0.0000
phoenix_trace ingest  ·  OpenInference 248 spans 50k/mo free $0.0000
↳ iter-2 · regenerated 'CTA flow' (judge: 71% → 84%) · Flash only
regen_partial  ·  Gemini 2.5 Flash 2,100 in / 1,210 out tok free quota $0.0000
↳ iter-3 · regenerated 'pricing API' (judge: 84% → 96% converged)
regen_partial  ·  Gemini 2.5 Pro 3,402 in / 1,840 out tok paid $0.0118
subtotal · 24h pipeline $0.0430
monthly hosting (preview live, scale-to-zero) $0.0000

spec-fit (Phoenix judge) free

96%
converged · 4 iters

Self-improvement loop killed at 96% — one more iter would have cost $0.012 for a +0.4% gain. Skipped.

free-tier headroom · this month $0.00

  • Cloud Run requests1,998,402 / 2,000,000
  • Cloud Run CPU-sec178k / 180k
  • Phoenix trace spans49,752 / 50,000
  • Gemini Flash RPM13 / 15
  • Gemini Pro RPD42 / 50
  • Secret Manager secrets3 / 6
  • Cloud Build min/day108 / 120
  • Artifact Registry GB0.41 / 0.50

Hackathon GCP credit: $100.00 · used $0.04 · runway: 2,325 generations.

generated preview  ·  live URL $0/mo

https:// 
jd-82957-anon-x9k.a.run.app
Next.js · static export · cold start ≈ 1.4s · idle cost $0.0000/h
“The cheapest stack isn't a feature. It's the proof that the founders who outspent us on AWS still couldn't ship.”

P04 · The Cost-Conscious. Stack: Gemini ADK (free Flash → paid Pro fallback) · Agent Builder · Phoenix MCP free · Cloud Run min=0 · Next.js static. Local agent state in SQLite, no managed DB. No CDN, no SaaS, no third-party analytics. Every figure on this page is wired to a real OpenInference span — receipt is generated, not designed.