Budgets & limits

Budgets cap how much can be spent per month. No hard stop is active by default; the only fixed limit is the balance itself.

Budget levels

Level	Who sets it	Where in the console
Key	The key's owner	API Keys → Create API key or Edit key
Account	The account holder	Budget & Limits → Account budget
Member	Team owner, per member	Members → Set cap
Company	Team owner	the owner's account budget applies to the whole team

Every budget has:

• an amount in euros (empty = no limit),
• an alert threshold (off, 70 %, 80 % or 90 %) at which an email is sent,
• optionally a hard stop (Hard stop at cap).

What happens when a budget is reached

• Without a hard stop (soft budget): only an email, requests keep running.
• With a hard stop: requests get 429 quota_exceeded with Retry-After: 60 until the budget is raised or the next month begins. Example responses are under Errors.
• A balance of €0 always stops, even without a budget: 402 payment_required.

The check is cached for up to 60 seconds, so a budget can be overshot slightly. The order of the checks is under Errors, limits, retries.

Step by step

Set the budget right when creating the key

The Create API key dialog (under API Keys) has the same budget fields as Edit key: MONTHLY BUDGET, ALERT THRESHOLD and Hard stop at cap. It suggests a €50 monthly budget, with no alert threshold and no hard stop. Generate key creates the key together with its budget.

Raise a key budget or turn off the hard stop

1. In the console, open API Keys.
2. In the key's row, click Edit key.
3. Set a higher amount under MONTHLY BUDGET, or turn off Hard stop at cap.
4. Click Save changes.

Set a budget for a member (team owner)

1. Open Members.
2. In the member's row, click Set cap.
3. In the Set member budget dialog, set the amount, the alert threshold and, if needed, Hard stop at cap.
4. Click Save budget.

Set the company budget (team owner)

The company budget is the owner's account budget. It applies to everyone whose usage your account pays for.

1. Open Budget & Limits (or, under Members, click Edit next to Monthly cap).
2. Under Account budget, set the amount (MONTHLY CAP), the ALERT THRESHOLD and, if needed, Hard stop at cap.

Try out a limit

1. Create a test key with a small MONTHLY BUDGET (e.g. €1) and Hard stop at cap.
2. Send requests with that key until the budget is used up.
3. Expect 429 quota_exceeded with Retry-After: 60, see the example.

Because the check is cached for up to 60 seconds, a few more requests can get through after the budget is reached. Usage can therefore slightly exceed the budget.

Time zones

What	Month boundary
Key budget	Calendar month in UTC (resets on the 1st at 00:00 UTC)
GET /v1/usage	Calendar month in Europe/Berlin

Around the turn of the month, the key budget and /v1/usage can therefore differ by up to two hours of usage.

Rate limits

Fixed RPM/TPM limits are currently not documented. For load planning: support@openhippo.io.

Model approvals in a team

The team owner decides under Model access which models may be used:

• one approval list for the company and one per member,
• a member may only use models that are on both lists,
• the owner's own keys are not restricted.

A model that is not approved returns 403 permission_denied.

Keeping track

• In the console under Analytics: 7, 30 or 90 days.
• Via the API: GET /v1/usage for the calling key.