## Estimate Cost

`$ boltz-api protein:design estimate-cost`

**post** `/compute/v1/protein/design/estimate-cost`

Estimate the cost of a protein design run without creating any resource or consuming GPU.

### Parameters

- `--binder-specification: object { chain_selection, modality, structure, 2 more }  or object { entities, modality, type, 2 more }  or object { binder, type, rules }`

  Binder specification for protein design. Use no_template for sequence-defined binders, structure_template for uploaded binder structures, or boltz_curated for Boltz-managed nanobody and antibody defaults.

- `--num-proteins: number`

  Number of protein designs to generate. Must be between 10 and 1,000,000.

- `--target: object { chain_selection, structure, type }  or object { entities, type, bonds, 3 more }`

  Target specification (structure template or template-free)

- `--idempotency-key: optional string`

  Client-provided key to prevent duplicate submissions on retries

- `--workspace-id: optional string`

  Target workspace ID (admin keys only; ignored for workspace keys)

### Returns

- `ProteinDesignEstimateCostResponse: object { breakdown, disclaimer, estimated_cost_usd }`

  Estimate response with monetary values encoded as decimal strings to preserve precision.

  - `breakdown: object { application, cost_per_unit_usd, num_units }`

    Cost breakdown for the billed application.

    - `application: "structure_and_binding" or "small_molecule_design" or "small_molecule_library_screen" or 3 more`

      - `"structure_and_binding"`

      - `"small_molecule_design"`

      - `"small_molecule_library_screen"`

      - `"protein_design"`

      - `"protein_library_screen"`

      - `"adme"`

    - `cost_per_unit_usd: string`

      Estimated cost per displayed unit as a decimal string, rounded up to 4 decimal places. This may include token-size multipliers or generation overhead; estimated_cost_usd is the authoritative total.

    - `num_units: number`

      Number of units shown for the estimate. For structure-and-binding, this is the requested number of samples. For protein and small-molecule design/screen endpoints, this is the requested number of proteins or molecules.

  - `disclaimer: string`

  - `estimated_cost_usd: string`

    Estimated total cost as a decimal string

### Example

```cli
boltz-api protein:design estimate-cost \
  --binder-specification '{chain_selection: {B: {chain_type: polymer, crop_residues: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], design_motifs: [{design_length_range: {max: 8, min: 4}, end_index: 5, start_index: 0, type: replacement}]}}, modality: peptide, structure: {type: url, url: https://example.com}, type: structure_template, rules: {excluded_amino_acids: [x], excluded_sequence_motifs: [string], max_hydrophobic_fraction: 0}}' \
  --num-proteins 10 \
  --target '{chain_selection: {A: {chain_type: polymer, crop_residues: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12], epitope_residues: [10, 11, 12], flexible_residues: [5, 6, 7]}}, structure: {type: url, url: https://example.com}, type: structure_template}'
```