> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://dev-docs.altrum.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Budgets and rate limits

> Cap spend and traffic for your organization, each AI system and each key.

<Info>This is in development. Details may change before it is available.</Info>

Altrum works out the cost of every request from the tokens the provider reports and a price list that Altrum keeps up to date every day. A model that is not on the list has no price, so its requests are recorded with no cost and do not count against a budget. Budgets cap that cost, and rate limits cap traffic.

## Where limits apply

| Level | Set in | Applies to |
| - | - | - |
| Organization | **AI Gateway**, **Settings**, **Limits** | All gateway traffic in your organization |
| AI system | The AI system's **AI Gateway** tab | All keys of that AI system |
| Key | **Limits** when you create or edit the key | That key only |

A request must pass every level that applies to it. Its cost counts against each of them.

## Budgets

A budget is an amount in US dollars for a period: an hour, a day, a week or a month. When spending reaches the budget, further requests are refused until the period resets. A budget resets a set time after it started, or, when you choose calendar alignment, at midnight UTC for a day, on Monday for a week and on the first of the month for a month. Each organization, AI system and key has at most one budget in the dashboard.

## Rate limits

A rate limit caps the number of requests, the number of tokens, or both, over a minute, an hour or a day. Requests over the limit are refused until the window resets. There is no default limit: a new organization has none until it sets one.

## What a caller sees

A request refused by a budget says which budget is used up (the key, the AI system or the organization), how much was spent and when it resets. A request refused by a rate limit says which limit was reached. Both come back in the format of the API the caller used. Raise the limit and requests flow again within seconds.

## Personal keys

Every personal key starts with the defaults an admin sets under **AI Gateway**, **Settings**, **Access**: a budget and a request limit. Admins can tighten any personal key. A personal key also counts against the organization's budget.


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