7. AI chat budgets

AdministrationDownload PDF (4.5 MB)

Budgets limits how much each person or group can spend on AI chat. Each person or group has one limit: a rolling 30-day total in US dollars. Use budgets to keep costs predictable.

Set a budget for a person or a group#

Outcome: the person or group cannot spend more than the amount in any 30-day window.

  1. Open Budgets in the side menu.
  2. Choose the Users or Groups tab.
  3. Choose a Site Name. Until you do, the page says "Select a site to view budgets".
  4. Find the row. Budget shows "Not set" or an amount, and Used shows the last 30 days.
  5. Choose the pencil in Action. The Chat budget dialog opens.
  6. Enter the 30-day budget (USD) and choose Save budget.
Chat budgets for users of the "main" site.
Chat budgets for users of the "main" site.
Editing one user's budget.
Editing one user's budget.

The toast says "Chat budget saved for <name>." The dialog shows the window (30 days), the currency ($ / USD) and the assignment: Direct for a budget set on that person, Fallback for a user who has no direct budget, or Not configured for a group.

Enter digits with at most two decimals. Do not type a $, commas or negative numbers. Use 0.00 to record a zero-dollar budget.

Tip

Set a group budget as a safety net, and give heavy users a higher direct budget.

How to check it worked: the row shows your amount under Budget. When a person reaches it, chat shows "You have reached your current AI usage limit. Contact your administrator to request additional access."

The Users tab lists only people who currently have the AI Chat permission on that site (chapter 4).

Remove a budget#

Open the dialog and choose Remove direct budget, then confirm "Remove direct budget?". The toast says "Direct chat budget removed for <name>." Usage is not reset, so Used keeps its value.

Which budget applies to a person#

Groundzero checks in this order:

  1. The person's own direct budget.
  2. Otherwise the lowest budget among the groups they belong to.
  3. Otherwise there is no administrator budget.

A group budget is a shared pool for requests counted against the group. People who have a direct budget do not use the group's.

What counts toward a budget#

Chat, agent and tool calls inside chat, prompt enhancement, chat titles, document embeddings, log analysis and Catalog description generation all count. Usage is counted from the moment of the request. AI agents built in Agent Builder use their own agent quotas instead (Analyze and AI guide, chapter 5).

Troubleshooting#

  • "Unable to save this chat budget." Cause: the save failed. Fix: check the amount (digits and at most two decimals) and try again.
  • "Budgets could not be loaded. Refresh and try again." Fix: refresh the page.
  • A person is missing from the Users tab. Cause: they do not have the AI Chat permission on that site. Fix: grant it (chapter 4).
  • A budget shows Not set but Used is not zero. Cause: normal. Usage is kept when a budget is removed or recreated. Fix: none needed.
  • A person hits the limit. Fix: raise their budget, or ask them to wait until older usage falls out of the 30-day window. To see who spends the most, use Consumption Metrics (Analyze and AI guide, chapter 6).