Spend limit
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A spend limit caps what an account can spend in a period.
- A hard limit stops API traffic once tracked spend reaches the threshold. It is a circuit breaker.
- A soft limit (spend alert) notifies you and changes nothing. It is a smoke alarm.
Both matter, and both have gaps: limits are scoped to an organisation or project rather than a key, enforcement lags actual usage, and auto-recharge can defeat the cap entirely by refilling a drained balance.
Full detail in OpenAI spend limits: hard, soft, and what they miss.