Budgets and spend limits
Budgets cap model spend per day for the organization and each worker, and per work item. Agent reserves spend before each call, so it never goes over by more than one call.
The limitsLink to The limits
- Organization daily budget: what every worker together can spend in one UTC day. Set it in the Defaults card on Settings. $0 stops all model spend.
- Worker daily budget and per-item budget: on the worker's Governance settings. 0 blocks all spend for that worker.
- Item budget: a work item can carry its own cap.
- Model account budgets: daily and monthly limits per account. See Model accounts and API keys.
- Ask above: one spend above this amount asks you first. See The Always ask list.
A worker's limits are also bounded by every manager above it, unless limits.inherit is "Own limits only".
DefaultsLink to Defaults
- A new organization from sign-up starts with the sign-up daily budget that your Agent server sets. By default it is $2 a day.
- Other organizations use the platform default, $5 a day by default.
- The recommended setup can suggest another value. See Recommended setup.
How it worksLink to How it works
Agent reserves the spend before each call. When a limit cannot hold the call, Agent refuses it. When Agent cannot read the budget records, it refuses the spend, to be safe.
See where the money wentLink to See where the money went
Budgets & Spend shows spend per day, by provider and model, top spenders, by purpose and per task, over 7, 30 or 90 days. The meters say Within budget, Near the limit or Limit reached: new spend is refused.
When a limit is reachedLink to When a limit is reached
See Out of budget.
Checked against the product on 2026-10-05.
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Related articles
- Out of budgetWhen a budget runs out, Agent refuses new spend. Work pauses with an escalation. You can raise the budget or stop the work, and you lose no progress.
- What costs whatModel calls cost money. Who pays depends on the payer: your own plan, your keys, the organization's keys or Agent. Costs in Agent are estimates at list prices.
- The included allowanceThe included allowance is an amount of Agent's own model credits that a new organization may use. Your Agent server's operator sets it. It can be zero.
- The Always ask listSome actions always wait for a person, whatever the mode or risk tier. By default the list has seven items.