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Overview

Layer tracks the cost of every request in real-time, giving you visibility into how much you’re spending across all your gates. You can set spending limits at both the account level and per-gate level.

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Account-Level Spending

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Viewing Your Spending

Go to Dashboard → Spending to see:
  • Current spending — Total cost in the current billing period
  • Spending limit — Your configured cap (if set)
  • Percentage used — How close you are to your limit
  • Period start — When the current 30-day rolling period began

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Setting a Spending Limit

  1. Go to Dashboard → Spending
  2. Set your monthly spending limit (in USD)
  3. Choose an enforcement type:
    • Alert only — You’re warned when you exceed the limit, but requests continue
    • Block — Requests are rejected once the limit is hit

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Alert Threshold

By default, Layer alerts you when spending reaches 80% of your limit. This gives you time to react before hitting the cap.

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Gate-Level Spending

Each gate can have its own independent spending limit, separate from your account limit.

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Configuration

When creating or editing a gate:
  1. Go to the Spending Limits tab
  2. Set a limit amount (USD)
  3. Choose a period: monthly or daily
  4. Choose enforcement: alert_only or block

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How It Works

  • Each request through a gate increments that gate’s spending counter
  • When the counter exceeds the limit:
    • Alert only: Request proceeds, but the gate’s status shows a warning
    • Block: Request is rejected. The gate’s status changes to suspended until the period resets.
  • Counters reset automatically at the start of each period

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Cost Calculation

Layer calculates costs based on:
  • Token count (input + output tokens)
  • Published model pricing from each provider
  • Request type (chat, image generation, etc.)
Cost is tracked per request and aggregated into gate-level and account-level totals.
If you’re using BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys), Layer still tracks estimated costs for analytics and limit enforcement. Your actual provider bill may vary slightly from Layer’s estimates.

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Session-Level Spending (Agent Gates)

Agent gates add per-session spending controls with a two-tier system:
TierBehavior
Soft limitRequest proceeds. Warning header returned so your code can react.
Hard limitRequest rejected (HTTP 402). Session blocked from further requests.
See Agent Gates for details.

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Spending API

You can programmatically check and manage spending via the API: 
# Get current spending
curl https://api.uselayer.ai/v1/spending \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer layer_your_key"

# Response
{
  "currentSpending": 12.45,
  "limit": 50.00,
  "periodStart": "2026-02-08T00:00:00Z",
  "status": "active",
  "limitEnforcementType": "alert_only",
  "percentUsed": 24.9
}