Agent Budgeting by Use Case
The right budget depends on the job. Coding agents, research agents, and trading bots have very different spend shapes — and starting numbers.
Coding agents
Spend: tool calls, compute, occasional data. Budget: per-session or daily caps, velocity limits on loops.
Research agents
Spend: search APIs, data vendors, inference. Budget: per-project ceilings, merchant allowlists.
Support agents
Spend: inference at request volume. Budget: daily ceilings tied to ticket volume.
Trading agents
Spend: data feeds, exchange APIs. Budget: hard caps + velocity limits, time-of-day rules.
None
| Use case | Spend shape | First rule |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | Tool calls + compute | Velocity limit |
| Research | Data + search | Merchant allowlist |
| Support | Inference volume | Daily ceiling |
| Trading | Feeds + APIs | Hard cap + velocity |
FAQ
What's a starting number?
Estimate legitimate daily spend × 1.5, then tune with audit-log data.
Can one policy cover all use cases?
Yes — per-agent rules let each use case run its own policy.
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