Budget Controls in PaperclipAI: Hard Caps, Soft Alerts, and Auto-Pause
Runaway AI costs are a legitimate concern. PaperclipAI addresses it at the infrastructure level with two-tier budget enforcement: soft warnings at 80% and hard stops at 100%. An agent that hits its budget limit is automatically paused — no heartbeats fire, no tokens consumed, no costs incurred.
How budget enforcement works
| Threshold | Action | What Happens to the Agent |
|---|---|---|
| 80% of budget | Soft alert | Agent is instructed to focus on critical tasks only |
| 100% of budget | Hard stop | Agent is auto-paused — no more heartbeats fire |
| Budget increased | Resume | Agent returns to active state |
| Calendar month resets | Auto-resume | Monthly budgets reset, agents reactivate |
Two levels of budget control
- Company-level: Set via API — PATCH /api/companies/{companyId} with budgetMonthlyCents — caps total organization spend
- Per-agent: Set through agent settings or API — caps individual agent spend regardless of company budget
Visibility into spending
Three API endpoints and a dashboard provide cost visibility: company totals, per-agent breakdowns, and per-project spending. The dashboard shows current-month spend against budgets in real time. No surprises, no hidden costs, no ambiguity about where tokens are going.
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Running PaperclipAI 24/7: Heartbeats, Budget Limits, and Unattended Operation
PaperclipAI agents run on heartbeat schedules with budget auto-pause. Overnight operation is safe because the system has hard limits — agents can't run forever or spend infinitely.
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