AI budget
Automations run while nobody is watching, which is exactly when an AI step can cost more than you meant it to. An AI budget is a ceiling on that spend, with a window that resets at the end of the day, at the end of the week, or never.
Quick overview
- Open Automations → AI budget.
- Set the workspace budget: the ceiling for every automation together.
- In the table below it, click Add budget on any automation to give that one its own ceiling.
- Pick an amount, a period (Daily / Weekly / One-off), and whether a full budget should stop the automation or only warn you.
- Both ceilings apply at once. Whichever is reached first stops the AI step.
Detailed reference
The two ceilings
| Scope | Covers | Where to set it |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace | Every automation in the workspace, added together | Automations → AI budget, top card |
| One automation | Only that automation's AI steps | The table on the same tab, or the automation's own Settings → AI budget |
An automation with no budget of its own is still bounded by the workspace budget. Giving an automation a generous budget never lifts the workspace ceiling.
Periods
| Period | Resets |
|---|---|
| Daily | Every day at midnight in the time zone you pick |
| Weekly | Every Monday at midnight in the time zone you pick |
| One-off | Never on its own. When it fills, it stays full until you reset the counter |
The time zone belongs to the budget, not to whoever is looking at it, so everyone on the team sees the same day boundary and the same countdown.
What counts toward it
Only AI calls made by automations count. Work you do yourself, in the editor or in chat, is measured separately under Settings → My Usage and never fills an automation budget.
A call counts once it succeeds. Failed calls are not charged by the AI provider and are not counted here either. Amounts are estimates from the provider's published list price.
When the budget fills
- The automation's AI steps stop and the step is recorded as an error, so you can see it in Activity and in the run log.
- You get a notification, once per period, not once per call.
- Everything else in the automation keeps working. Only AI steps are affected.
If you turn Stop when the limit is reached off, nothing is blocked: you are only warned, and the bar turns red once you pass the limit.
The warning threshold
The bar turns amber and a notification is sent when spend passes this percentage of the limit, so the first signal is not the block itself. It defaults to 80%.
Troubleshooting
- An AI step failed with "Bütçe doldu". The budget for that automation, or for the whole workspace, is full. The message says which one. Raise the limit, turn off Stop when the limit is reached, or wait for the period to reset.
- The bar says $0 but the automation has clearly been running. Only AI steps spend anything. An automation that posts, waits, branches or moves files costs nothing and will sit at $0.
- The number here is lower than my provider invoice. This only measures calls made through CardCraft. The same API key used anywhere else spends money we never see.
- A one-off budget will not reset. That is what one-off means. Open the budget and use Reset counter; editing the amount deliberately does not forgive what was already spent.
- I cannot edit the budget. Only workspace owners and admins can change a budget. Everyone who can see Automations can read it, so you can always find out why something stopped.
Tips
Start with the workspace budget
One ceiling over everything catches the case you did not predict: a new automation, a loop that fires more often than you expected, a template someone copied. Per-automation budgets are for the flows you already know are expensive.
Daily beats monthly for an overnight loop
A monthly ceiling only notices after the month's money is gone. A daily one caps the damage at one day and lets the automation carry on tomorrow.