How much would you let an AI agent spend overnight? Nobody talks about budget caps
kkboss9850 · reddit · 2026-10-26
A developer running multiple unattended agents (research, weekly reports, data pulls) realized he'd never set real spending limits — the only cap was whatever providers could bill before he woke up.
His current setup:
- Per-agent daily limits instead of one shared budget
- Lower caps on expensive tools like image/video generation
- Agents stop and report after two failed paid calls instead of retrying
- Prepaid balances wherever possible so worst-case loss is capped by design
Open question: where should the limit live? A line in the prompt is a request, not a limit — provider dashboards vary, and some offer no limits at all. He asks how others cap unattended agent spend.
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