> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Cost and throughput > Read what your factory's work costs and how fast it ships on the Metrics page, and learn how OuterLayer counts cost. The **Metrics** page charts what a work item costs, how long it takes, how often a review passes it, and how many items ship. To open it, choose **Metrics** under the factory in the navigation. You need the **View metrics** permission. The owner, admin, write and read roles hold it. ## The Overview dashboard The page shows one dashboard, named **Overview**. It is the same for every factory, and you cannot change it. It has four widgets, and each is a line chart: | Widget | What each point shows | | - | - | | **Cost per work item** | The mean cost of the items that shipped that day. Only items with a known cost count. | | **Time to complete** | The median hours from when an item was added to Work to when it first shipped. | | **Quality** | The share of reviewed items that no person ever failed, for items that finished that day. | | **Throughput** | The number of items that shipped that day. | ### Read a widget * Choose **24 hours**, **7 days**, **30 days** or **90 days** to set how far back the widgets look. The page starts on **7 days** and does not save your choice. * A widget has one point for each day with at least one item to count. A day with none has no point. * The large number above a chart is the average of its points. It is not a total. * Hover a point to read its value and how many items it covers, such as *mean of 3 items shipped that day*. * Days follow the time zone of your browser. An empty widget says why. *Every work item shipped in this range has an unpriced session* means that items shipped, and none has a known cost. ## How cost is counted OuterLayer prices each session from its token counts and the price of each model the session used. A session's cost has one of three states: | State | Shown as | Meaning | | - | - | - | | Complete | The amount, such as *\$4.20* | Every part of the session's usage had a price. | | Partial | *at least \$4.20* | Some usage had no price, such as a model with no listed price. The amount covers the rest. | | Unpriced | A dash, *—* | No usage had a price. A dash never means \$0.00. | ### An item's cost An item's cost is the sum of its confirmed sessions and their subagents. A session counts when its link to the item is confirmed. On the item page, each session's row in the **Activity** section shows its cost, how it is linked and whether the link is confirmed. An item's cost is unknown when one of its confirmed sessions has no price. It is also unknown while a confirmed session's transcript has not arrived. OuterLayer does not fill the gap with \$0.00. A subagent with no price adds nothing. The **Agent cost** row of the item's sidebar shows the cost: | Shown | Meaning | | - | - | | *\$12.40 · 2 sessions, 1 subagent included* | Every confirmed session has a price. | | *≥ \$8.10 · 3 sessions, 1 unpriced* | A confirmed session has no price. The amount is the priced part. | | *unknown* | No confirmed session has a price. | | *— no confirmed sessions* | No session is confirmed for the item. | A row on the Work page shows the same total, or *≥* and the priced part. See [What a row shows](https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/the-work-page.md#what-a-row-shows). For an item built on a managed runner, the row also shows the number of managed builds and their time. A member who can read billing also sees what their overage costs. Session cost and managed build overage are separate amounts. See [Managed build-hours](https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/billing-and-trials.md#managed-build-hours). ## How the widgets count items All four widgets read the items on the Work page. They share these rules: * An item counts on the day it first shipped. The Work page shows a shipped item as **Done**. * An item that ships again after its issue reopens counts only on its first day. * **Cost per work item**, **Time to complete** and **Throughput** count the same items. **Cost per work item** then leaves out items with an unknown cost, so it can cover fewer items than **Throughput**. **Quality** counts reviewed items only: * An item is reviewed when a person approved it or requested changes on it. An item that nobody reviewed is left out. * A reviewed item is good when no person ever requested changes. A later approval does not erase a request for changes. * A follow-up sent with **Send to agent** is not a review, so it does not count. * The item counts on the day it shipped, or on the day its issue closed with no merged pull request. See [Submit a review](https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/review-the-work.md#submit-a-review). ## Next steps * [Review and merge](https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/review-the-work.md): read an item's cost beside its review. * [Use the MCP server](https://docs-stg.outerlayer.ai/use-the-mcp-server.md): read model costs, trends and pull request outcomes from an agent. The tools use UTC dates. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.