sipi.bot limits
Spend limits for Google Gemini agents
Google Gemini agents using function calling or the Vertex AI platform need spend limits configured outside the model. This guide covers what Gemini's native controls do and do not bound, and how to enforce hard per-transaction and velocity limits via sipi.bot.
What Google Gemini provides natively
Google Cloud and Vertex AI expose quota and project-level spending controls, plus per-request token caps. These are coarse and account/project-scoped: they cap aggregate usage, not individual agent actions, and they are evaluated after a request is in flight — not before a transaction commits. A Gemini agent that issues many parallel function calls inside one quota window can exceed a useful budget before the quota refreshes.
Why that is not enough for autonomous agents
Autonomous agents need explicit spend limits because the alternatives — trusting the agent, the provider's monthly cap, or a human reviewer on every transaction — do not actually bound the risk. Provider caps are coarse and account-level. Human review does not scale. And agents have no native concept of a budget. A pre-spend firewall gives you a concrete, enforceable ceiling evaluated on every transaction in under 5ms.
The limits that matter for a Google Gemini agent
| Limit type | What it catches | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Per-transaction cap | A single oversized call | Block any one model/tool spend over $5 |
| Daily total | Aggregate session burn | Max $50/day across all agent spend |
| Velocity cap | Retry & runaway loops | Max 30 Google Gemini calls/minute |
| Category limit | Tool-call cost categories | Cap "long-context" calls at $10/day |
What happens when a limit is hit
When a transaction would exceed the limit, sipi.bot returns block with a reason code identifying which limit fired. The agent receives the decision as structured JSON and can choose an alternative path — retry with smaller scope, request human approval, or abandon the task. The blocked transaction is logged with the policy version, so you can always see exactly why it was denied.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Gemini block spend in real time?
No. The native controls described above are quotas, rate limits, IAM scopes, or monthly budgets. They throttle or alert; they do not evaluate an individual transaction against a spend policy and block it in milliseconds before the cost is incurred. That is the gap sipi.bot fills.
What limit value should I start with?
Start with the recommended default for your agent type, observe real traffic for a week, then tune. The right limit is the smallest value that does not interrupt legitimate work. If you are blocking more than 1% of transactions in steady state, the limit is probably too tight. Pair every dollar limit with a velocity cap (transactions per minute) — dollar limits catch the single large transaction, velocity caps catch the loop.
How does sipi.bot enforce this for a Google Gemini agent?
Your agent calls evaluate_spend before any transaction (the model call, tool call, or provisioning action). sipi.bot checks it against your per-transaction caps, daily totals, velocity limits, merchant allowlists, and category rules, then returns approve, block, or flag — in under 5ms. The Google Gemini request only proceeds if the decision is approve.