Budgets & Alerts
Set spending limits per API key, team, or organization. Get alerted before you overspend.
Per-Key Budget
Set a daily cost limit on any API key. When the limit is reached, requests are either blocked or routed to cheaper models.
// API key settings
{
"costLimitDaily": 10.00,
"routingStrategy": "balanced",
"qualityThreshold": 0.85
}Alert Thresholds
Configure when you get notified:
| Threshold | Action |
|---|---|
| 50% | Info notification (Slack/email) |
| 75% | Warning — consider aggressive routing |
| 90% | Critical — auto-enable cost-saving mode |
| 100% | Budget exceeded — block or force cheapest model |
Predictive Forecasting
CostLens tracks your burn rate and projects when you'll hit budget limits:
- Current burn rate ($/hour)
- Projected daily/monthly spend
- Time until budget exhaustion
- Recommendations to stay within budget
Kill Switch
When a budget alert fires, CostLens sends a one-click pause link that immediately stops all requests for that API key. Available via Slack and email.
Email Kill Link
Budget alert emails include a signed pause link. Click it to instantly pause the key for 30 minutes.
- Link expires after 15 minutes (security)
- Multiple recipients supported — configure in Settings → Alerts
- Your account email is always included
- Key auto-resumes after 30 minutes, or resume early from Settings → API Keys
Slack Kill Switch
If Slack is connected, alert messages include a "Pause" button. Requires Slack interactivity to be configured. See Slack docs.
Security
- Slack requests verified via HMAC-SHA256 signature
- Email links use time-limited signed tokens
- All pause actions logged in audit trail
- Unauthenticated requests are rejected (401)
Organization Budgets
Org admins can set budgets at multiple levels:
- Organization-wide — total monthly cap across all teams
- Per-team — allocate budget to each team
- Per-key — granular control per service/environment