Spending caps and alerts
Cap what a workspace spends each month, in total or per service, get an email before spending adds up, and buy credits automatically before they run out.
On this page
Credits are prepaid, so a workspace never spends more than it holds. The Spending tab decides how fast it spends them: monthly caps that stop spending, emails when spending passes a point you pick, and auto top-up, which buys credits on its own so nothing pauses when the balance runs low.
Open Spending
Go to Settings in the switcher menu, or the Settings link in the sidebar, and open the Spending tab. The address ends in /settings/spending. In the Modulify app for iPhone and Android, it is the Spending tab of the workspace settings.
Every member of the workspace can see the tab. Only the workspace owner can change it: for anyone else the fields and buttons are disabled with the tooltip Only the workspace owner can change spending settings.
This month shows Credits left, Spent this month and Auto top-ups, counted from the 1st of the month, in UTC.
Set monthly caps
Monthly caps holds three caps, each a whole number of credits in a calendar month. Leave a cap empty for no cap, which is how every workspace starts, then click Save.
| Cap | What it counts | What stops once it is reached |
|---|---|---|
| All spending | Chat, images, videos, AI and extra emails together | The chat refuses new turns, images and videos, AI pauses on every site, and sites stop buying extra emails |
| AI on sites | The AI of every site together | AI pauses on every site |
| Extra emails | The emails sites send past their monthly allowance | Sites stop buying extra emails |
Under each cap, a bar shows what this month's spending counts against it, with refunds taken off.
Spending stops until the 1st of next month, or until you raise or remove the cap. AI and email sending then start again on their own. A chat turn that is already running when a cap is reached finishes, so a cap can be passed by what that turn spends, and by AI or email bought at the same moment.
Lowering All spending below what the workspace already spent this month asks first, Lower the spending cap?, because the chat stops starting new turns right away.
What you see when a cap stops something:
- In the chat, the message is not sent, it goes back to the box, and a notice says Monthly spending cap reached.
- The AI tab says AI is paused by a spending cap with Open spending settings, and every AI request of the site answers
402with the codemonthly_cap_reached. - The Emails tab says Sending is paused by a spending cap with Open spending settings, and nothing is queued. A bulk email already going out pauses, and carries on by itself once the cap lifts.
The workspace owner gets one email when a cap is reached, instead of one for each site.
Get alerts
Alerts sends the workspace owner an email:
- Email at picks the points of each cap and of the budget that send one: 50%, 75% and 90%. 75% is ticked to start with. A cap always sends an email when it is reached.
- Monthly budget is an amount of credits that sends emails at the same points, but never stops anything. Leave it empty for none.
- Low balance sends an email once when the credits left fall below this many, and again only after the balance went back above it. Leave it empty for none.
Each point sends one email a month. A point the workspace already passed when you save sends none.
Turn on auto top-up
Auto top-up buys credits on its own with the workspace owner's card, the same way Add credits does, and sends the same receipt email each time. It needs a plan that can buy credit packs and a card on file.
Pick when and how much
Set When credits left fall below, the balance that starts a top-up, pick a package in Buy, priced for your plan, and set At most, the most top-ups in a calendar month, from 1 to 30. Click Save.
Check the card
Card shows the card that pays: the default card in the owner's billing details, or the card added last when none is the default, the same card Add credits charges. Update card opens Stripe in a new tab, where you add or change it, and the tab shows the new card once you come back to it. Without a card, the switch is disabled with the tooltip Add a card with Update card first.
Turn it on
Turn on Buy credits automatically. It asks first, Turn on auto top-up?, with the package, its price and the monthly limit. When the balance is already below the threshold, the first top-up runs right away.
Past the monthly limit, auto top-up waits for the 1st and emails the owner. Raise At most to keep it going.
Auto top-up turns itself off, and emails the owner whose card it charged, when the card is declined or needs a confirmation the owner has to give, when there is no card on file, when the workspace changes owner, or when its plan can no longer buy credits. A change of owner turns it off the moment the transfer is accepted, so the previous owner's card is not charged again. The tab then shows Auto top-up turned itself off with the reason. Fix it, then turn auto top-up back on.
In the mobile app, auto top-up is read only, and Manage on the web opens this tab in your browser.
From an AI client over MCP
get_workspace_spendingreads the caps, this month's spending, the alerts and auto top-up, and needsworkspaces:read.update_workspace_spendingsets or removes the caps and the alerts, needsworkspaces:write, and only works for the workspace owner. Auto top-up charges a card, so it can only be turned on or changed in the app.
In a site's chat, the workspace owner changes the caps and auto top-up through a card they approve, and chat sets the alerts directly, see Buy credits, a plan or sites from chat.
See MCP tools.