> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.edgee.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Usage limits & budgets

> Cap spend per API key, per member, or per squad, over a daily, monthly, or lifetime window.

A usage limit is a hard ceiling on spend. Once a scope reaches its limit, its requests are rejected until the window resets — no partial service, no overage.

Limits are set independently at three scopes, and a request must pass **all** of the ones that apply to it:

| Scope       | Where to set it                                           | Covers                                                              |
| ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **API key** | Team → member card → agent settings, or the API Keys page | Everything spent through that one key                               |
| **Member**  | Settings → Members & seats                                | Everything one person spends, across every key they hold            |
| **Squad**   | Team → Squads → squad → Settings → **Spending limit**     | The combined spend of every member of the [squad](/docs/features/squads) |

A member holding two keys, each under its own key limit, can still be stopped by their member limit. A squad whose members are each under their individual limits can still be stopped by the squad limit.

## Periods

Every limit carries a window it is measured over:

| Period       | Resets                                |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------- |
| **Daily**    | At 00:00 UTC each day                 |
| **Monthly**  | At 00:00 UTC on the 1st of each month |
| **All-time** | Never — a lifetime cap on the scope   |

New limits default to **monthly**. A limit of 0 means no limit at all, which is also the default for a scope you have never configured.

<Note>
  Windows are calendar-based in UTC, not rolling. A daily limit resets at midnight UTC regardless of
  when the spend happened, so a team spread across time zones shares one reset moment.
</Note>

## What happens at the limit

Requests from a scope that has reached its limit are rejected with an HTTP **429**, and the error names which limit tripped — the key's own limit, or the member/squad cap above it. The agent sees a rate-limit error and stops; nothing is served at partial quality.

Spend through your own [BYOK](/docs/features/byok) provider keys counts toward these limits as well. A limit caps what a scope spends, not what Edgee bills for.

If usage data is briefly unavailable, requests are allowed through rather than blocked. Limits fail open.

## Watching a limit before it trips

Set a [budget alert](/docs/features/alerts) on any scope that has a limit, and you get a notification at 50%, 80%, or 100% of it. Member and squad budget alerts are percentages of these limits, so a scope with no limit set has nothing for the alert to measure and the rule stays silent.

Members can see their own position — spend so far and the limit in force for them — without needing admin access.

## Limits vs routing budgets

[Routing strategies](/docs/features/routing-strategies) also carry a budget, and it does a different job:

|                  | Usage limit                | Routing budget                                           |
| ---------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| Purpose          | Stop spending              | Change which model serves the request                    |
| At the threshold | Requests rejected with 429 | Escalate to the next stage — cheaper model, same service |
| Applies to       | Key, member, squad         | Whichever scope the strategy is assigned to              |

They compose. A common setup is a routing strategy that steps down to cheaper models as spend accumulates, with a usage limit behind it as the backstop. If you want the strategy itself to stop rather than step down, its **Block at 100%** setting is the strategy-side equivalent of a limit.

## Limits vs credits

A usage limit is a per-scope ceiling. Your organization's **credit balance** is the pooled amount available to spend in the first place, and it is tracked separately in Settings → Credits. Running out of credits stops the whole organization; hitting a usage limit stops one key, member, or squad.