Cost control
Also known as: spend control · budget management
Cost control is keeping an agent’s API spend in check. Autonomy multiplies calls, so the bill can run away fast.
- Per-task and per-day budgets.
- Rate limits and caching of repeated calls.
- Model routing: cheap model for easy steps, big model for hard ones.
The multiplier: one user request can fan out into dozens of model calls in an agent loop. What costs $0.01 per answer can cost $1 per *task*. Meter it from day one.