> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getunbound.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Cost Management
> Spend against limits, and exemptions that override them
| | |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------- |
| **URL** | `/cost-management` |
| **Sidebar** | Cost Management |
| **Roles** | Admin · Manager · Analytics Viewer |
| **Requires** | Cost management enabled for your organization |
Cost Management shows what each developer has spent this month, what happened when they met their spending limits, and lets you raise one developer's limit without changing the policy that covers everyone else.
## What's on the page
Three tabs, with the current month shown in the header.
| Tab | `?tab=` | Contents |
| ------------------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Usage** | — | Spend per developer for the month |
| **Rate Limit Hits** | `limit-hits` | Every time a developer was blocked by a spend limit |
| **Cost Exemptions** | `exemptions` | The exemption audit trail. **Admin only** |
### Usage
Totals for the month — **Total Estimated Cost**, **Total Requests** and **Total Tokens** — above a table of developers.
| Column | Contents |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **User** | The developer, with their email |
| **Monthly limit** | Their budget for the month, or **No credit limit set** |
| **Monthly Credits Used** | Spend against that budget, as a bar |
| **Rate Limit** | Their spend limit and the window it covers |
| **Limit Hits** | How many windows they were blocked in — a link through to **Rate Limit Hits** for that developer |
| **Tokens** | Tokens used this month |
| **Tools** | The AI tools they connected |
Where an exemption applies, the **Monthly limit** and **Rate Limit** cells carry an **Exempt** or **Extended** badge.
### Rate Limit Hits
| Column | Contents |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **Time** | When it happened |
| **User** | The developer affected |
| **Spend / Limit** | What they had spent against the cap |
| **Window** | The window the limit covers |
| **Resumes At** | When their spending window resets |
| **Policy** | The policy that applied |
Before anyone has been blocked it reads **No Spend Limit Events Yet**.
### Cost Exemptions
| Column | Contents |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Granted** | When it was granted |
| **User** | Who holds it |
| **Mode** | **Exempt** — no cost limits apply at all — or **Extended**, a bounded increase |
| **Overrides** | The raised values, as `$x/month` and `$x / window` badges. An **Exempt** row reads **No limits apply** |
| **Expires** | When it lapses, or **Until revoked** |
| **Status** | **Active**, **Expired** or **Revoked**. Hovering a revoked row shows when and by whom |
| **Reason** | Why it was granted |
| **Granted By** | Which admin granted it |
Before any exemption has been granted it reads **No Cost Exemptions Yet**.
## Filters and controls
A filter menu in the header narrows every tab by user, and the **Usage** tab by tool type as well, with active selections shown as chips. **Usage** and **Cost Exemptions** each have their own search by name or email, and **Cost Exemptions** filters by status.
## What you can do
| Action | Result |
| ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Edit cost limits** on a Usage row | Opens the **exemption panel**, below. Admin only |
| Grant an exemption | Raises that one developer's limits, leaving the policy unchanged |
| Revoke an exemption | Returns them to the policy limit |
### Exemption panel
| Section | Contents |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Current Limits** | The limits that apply to this developer — **Monthly budget** and **Rate limit**, each showing **No budget set** or **No rate limit set** where none applies, and linking to the cost policy that set them |
| **Active Exemption** | What the exemption changes — its **Mode**, the **Monthly budget override** and **Rate limit override**, when it **Expires**, and the **Reason** it was granted |
| Grant or replace | New amounts for the monthly budget and the rate limit, each of which must exceed the policy value, a reason for the audit trail, and either an expiry date or no expiry |
Granting is an increase, not a suspension: the panel raises this developer's numbers above what their cost policy sets. A developer who is fully exempt is told so, and saving replaces that with the bounded limits you enter.
### When an exemption stops applying
| How it ends | When enforcement returns |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| **Revoke** | Immediately |
| **Expiry date passes** | Within about **15 minutes** of the expiry time |
An exemption set to expire at 17:00 can still let a request through at 17:05. The **Status** column flips to **Expired** on the date regardless. Where you need the limit back at a precise moment, revoke rather than wait for the expiry.
**Changing a spend limit's Window resets the open window.** Editing the *window* on a cost policy — say from 6 hours to 24 — discards whatever spend the affected developers had accrued in the window that was already running. Within about fifteen minutes of the edit they are back at zero, so someone who was two-thirds of the way through their cap has the whole cap again. Changing only the *amount* leaves the accrued spend alone. Widen a window at the start of a billing period rather than to unblock someone mid-window; for one person, grant an exemption instead.
**Resumes At** answers "when can I work again", so it is the column to quote to a developer who has reached a limit.
## Messages you may see
| Message | What it means |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `Cost limits increased` | The exemption was granted |
| `Could not grant exemption` | The exemption was not created. The original limit still applies |
| `Exemption revoked` | The developer is back on the policy limit |
| `Could not revoke exemption` | The exemption is still in force |
## Related
| Page | For |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| [Policies — Usage](/dashboard/policies/usage) | Setting the budgets and spend limits |
| [Analytics — Users](/dashboard/analytics/users) | Spend per developer |