2026-07-18
Hard budgets vs soft OpenAI org limits
Provider dashboards warn. KeyC stops the request with HTTP 402 when a key hits its monthly cap.
Provider-side spend limits are improving, but they are usually account-wide and soft. Soft means someone gets an email after the damage.
KeyC enforces per-virtual-key monthly budgets on every request. At 100%, the gateway returns HTTP 402 in OpenAI-compatible error shape so SDKs fail clearly.
Pair budgets with alerts at 80% (Slack or email on Pro+) so humans can raise the cap before a block — or let the block protect the invoice.
Budgets reset on the 1st (UTC). Raise a cap anytime; enforcement updates instantly via cache invalidation.