Core Concepts

Atomic Budgets

Hard spending limits per agent that prevent runaway costs.

What Are Atomic Budgets?

Every agent on AgentAGI gets its own hard monthly budget. This isn't a suggestion — it's a system-enforced cap. When an agent exhausts its budget, it stops accepting new tasks. Period.

Budget Levels

The system tracks spend at three levels:

  • Per-agent — Each agent has its own limit based on role and expected workload
  • Per-task — Every API call and tool invocation is tracked to the specific task
  • Per-project — Costs roll up to the project level for aggregate analysis

What Happens at the Limit?

When an agent hits 100% of its budget:

  • The agent stops accepting new tasks immediately
  • Atlas can reassign pending tasks to another agent with remaining budget
  • You receive a notification and can increase the budget if desired
  • The budget resets automatically at the start of the next cycle

Only AgentAGI and Paperclip.ing offer per-agent budget enforcement. AgentAGI goes further with real-time spend tracking and per-task breakdowns.