> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hopscotchlabs.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Spend controls
> Pause every request, set your own spend rate cap, and choose when we email you about a falling balance.
Three controls decide how fast this workspace can spend, and when it stops. They live
on the **Settings** screen in the dashboard, in its **Limits** section.
| Control | What it does | Who may read it | Who may change it |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ----------------- |
| Pause | Refuses every request straight away, revoking nothing. | Any member | Owner |
| Spend rate cap | Limits how much money may be reserved per rolling 60 seconds. | Any member | Owner |
| Low credit notice | Emails you once when your available balance falls below a figure. | Any member | Owner |
Only the workspace owner can manage its billing: the card and the buying of
credit are the owner's own. Members may read the balance and the statement of
the workspace they are in.
## Pause every request
Pause is the control for a runaway client, a key you are not sure about, or a weekend
you would rather not be surprised by. It refuses requests without revoking anything,
so lifting it starts everything again with no keys to re-create.
### Before you press it
The screen states what it is about to do, in numbers, before anything happens:
> Pausing refuses every request on all N live keys straight away, with nothing charged
> for a refused request. Over the last 7 days this account made N requests, which is
> the traffic that would have stopped. Nothing is deleted and no key is revoked, so
> lifting the pause starts everything again with no keys to re-create.
Both counts are your workspace's own, read at the moment the screen loads. The request
count is the trailing seven days of what actually happened, not a forecast
of what will stop. Nobody can count future requests, so the screen quotes the honest
stand-in and says which it is.
### While it is on
Requests are refused with HTTP 503 and code `paused_by_owner`, and nothing is charged
for them. The screen explains the state rather than only showing a toggle, because
somebody who paused on Friday and is reading this on Monday has forgotten:
> Every request on this account is refused while this is on, on all N live keys, and
> nothing is charged for a refused request. Credit already held for requests that were
> running when you paused is still theirs: each one finishes and is charged for what
> it really used. Lift the pause here and requests start working again immediately,
> with no keys to re-create.
**Requests already in flight are not cut off.** Each finishes and is charged for what
it really used.
### Lifting it
Press it again. The next request is admitted immediately: there is no cache to expire
and no deploy involved. Your keys, your members and your credit are exactly as they
were.
Pause is yours and only yours to lift. It is a different state from an account we
have suspended, which has its own answer and cannot be lifted from this screen.
## Set your spend rate cap
The spend rate cap limits how much money may be **reserved** per rolling 60 seconds.
The default is 5000 minor units. Over it, requests are refused with HTTP 429 and code
`spend_rate_exceeded`, and they are admitted again within 60 seconds with nothing for
you to do.
Read [Rate limits and spend controls](/concepts/rate-limits-and-spend-controls) first
if you have not: the cap counts estimated maximums rather than money spent, and
sending `max_tokens` is the lever that makes it bind less often.
Each row names the unit it is enforced in and carries a sentence saying whether it
is yours to move.
The spend rate cap field states the highest value you may set yourself. Where we
cannot state it at that moment, the hint says so and adds that lowering your cap
still works.
At least 100. Submitting a figure above the stated ceiling is refused, naming both
your figure and the highest you may set, and nothing is written.
The new cap applies to the next request on this workspace. There is nothing to
deploy and nothing to expire.
Two rules worth knowing:
* **A cap of 0 is refused.** Stopping requests entirely is what the pause is for, and
it has its own control, its own state and its own sentence. A cap of zero would be a
second way to do it that no screen would explain.
* **Lowering always works.** If your cap is above the self service ceiling, you can
still lower it to any figure at or above 100 minor units. You just cannot raise it
further until we raise the ceiling.
### The rows you cannot raise
The request rate and the token rates protect a provider account shared across every
customer, and the screen says so rather than only enforcing it:
> This protects a provider account we share across every customer. Raising it is a
> decision we make, not one you can make yourself.
There is no self service path for those figures. If you need more room, ask us.
Two of the rows carry no figure yet:
> Not yet enforced. We are not checking your traffic against this figure yet.
They are drawn because the units we meter you in are fixed now rather than later. No
figure means nobody is checking, not that you have no room.
The Limits section and the self service cap control are shipped. Every row reads the
same live data the platform enforces against, and changing your spend rate cap here
takes effect exactly the way the steps above describe.
## Choose when we warn you
The low credit notice emails you once, at your verified address, when your available
balance falls below a figure you choose.
* A whole number of minor units, from 0 to 100000. 500 means 5.00.
* **0 turns the email off**, and the screen says so in words.
* One email per crossing. No second email is sent until the balance goes back above
the figure and falls below it again, and the screen says which of those three
states you are in.
The email names the balance you hold and the threshold you set, says that requests
are refused once credit runs out and that nothing is charged for a request we refuse,
and points at Billing. It carries no link with a token in it.
## What each refusal costs you
Nothing. A paused request, a rate capped request and a request refused for want of
credit are all charged nothing. That is why the pause is safe to press and the cap is
safe to test.
## Next
What the cap counts and how to make it bind less often.
Topping up, and the statement that explains it.
Every response carries the same id on two headers: `x-hopscotch-request-id`,
which is ours, and `x-request-id`, which is the one the official OpenAI SDKs
surface on their error objects. Every error envelope repeats it as
`request_id`. Quote it when you ask us about a request. Without it we are
guessing at which of your requests you mean.