Agent spending limits should stop the next request, not explain the last bill
Autonomous agents need hard spending limits per agent, sub-agent, tool and route. SatGate checks permission before the agent acts. SatGate signs a receipt when it refuses an agent over a budget, a missing payment or a tool permission, and when an agent spends from a budget in Control.
The control point is before the call
Autonomous agents can generate real costs through model calls, API requests, MCP tools, delegated sub-agents, retries, and background workflows. If the policy check happens after the request, the money is already spent.
SatGate enforces economic policy at the gateway boundary. Every important request can be evaluated against budget, scope, identity, revocation, route, tool, receipt, and audit rules at the gateway before forwarding.
That is the difference between cost reporting and economic control.
What good policy includes
Per-agent budgets
Track and limit spend by agent identity, tenant, task, workflow, route, model, and MCP tool.
Delegated sub-agent limits
Give sub-agents smaller budgets, narrower tools, shorter expiry, and separate signed receipts than their parent.
Kill switches and revocation
Stop future spend by revoking or narrowing credentials before the next API or MCP request.
From Observe to Control
Start by measuring real agent spend, then enforce hard caps where risk, cost, or autonomy justifies it.
SatGate controls
Use SatGate to move from Observe to Control: measure real agent economics first, then enforce the limits that matter.
Agent identity
Attribute requests to the tenant, agent, task, workflow, route, model, MCP tool, and delegated sub-agent.
Budget checks
Evaluate remaining spend, tool costs and route budgets before forwarding.
Scoped credentials
Use expiring capabilities instead of broad static keys so authority matches the job.
Revocation
Block the next request when a credential, workflow, route, budget, or agent should stop.
Audit trails
Record allow/deny decisions with policy, budget remaining, route, tool, estimated cost, and outcome.
Benchmark risk
Model loops, retry storms, fanout, detection delay, and avoided spend with benchmark-backed scenarios.
FAQ
Agent spending limit questions
What are agent spending limits?
Agent spending limits are budgets and caps, checked before the request goes through, that constrain what autonomous AI agents can spend by task, route, tool, model, workflow, tenant, session, or day.
Why are dashboards not enough?
Dashboards and billing alerts report spend after requests complete. Autonomous agents can loop, retry, and delegate fast enough that budget policy must be enforced at the gateway before forwarding.
How does SatGate help?
On each request that goes through SatGate, it checks identity, budget, route, tool scope, credential caveats, expiry, revocation, and audit policy before forwarding.
What spending limits should AI agents have?
AI agents should have spending limits by tenant, agent, task, workflow, session, model, tool, route, delegated sub-agent, and time window, with per-request ceilings and emergency revocation.
Are spending limits better than rate limits for AI agents?
They solve different problems. Rate limits control frequency, while spending limits control economic exposure by checking request price, remaining budget, scope, and policy before cost is created.
Make agent economics enforceable.
SatGate is the economic firewall for AI agents: observe every request and enforce spending limits before execution. SatGate signs a receipt when it refuses an agent over a budget, a missing payment or a tool permission, and when an agent spends from a budget in Control.