Spending Controls
Admin quick reference for setting spend limits, managing group caps, and handling limit breaches.
How the budget works: shared pool, not per-seat
Your organisation has one contract value (the pool). All usage draws from it — there is no fixed amount pre-assigned to each seat. Heavy users consume more of the pool; light users consume less. You divide the pool into group caps to control how much each department can draw. Individual limits are a further layer where your contract supports them.
Set a group spend limit
Admin Console → Groups
1Admin Console → Groups
2Select the group to edit
3Find Spend limit in group settings
4Enter monthly cap in your contract currency
5Save
Example: Engineering £2,000 · Marketing £500 · Legal £300 · Leadership uncapped
Set an individual user limit
Admin Console → Members
1Admin Console → Members
2Click ⋮ next to the user
3Select Edit member or Spend settings
4Set monthly limit
5Save
Note: Individual limits are not available on all Enterprise tiers. If not visible, contact your Anthropic account manager.
Budget alerts
Admin Console → Usage → Budget settings → Add alert
60%
Early warning
Investigate what is driving spend
80%
Action threshold
Raise limit or ask group to moderate
95%
Near-limit
Prepare raise-limit process now
Alert emails go to the admin(s) and recipient you specify. Assign the group's department head as a second recipient so they self-manage before escalating to IT.
What happens when a limit is reached
Claude shows the user their group has reached its monthly limit
New conversations blocked; in-progress conversations may also stop
No grace period — binary: under limit = full access, at limit = no access
Resets automatically at start of next calendar month (not 30 days)
Admin can raise the limit at any time to restore access immediately
Emergency: restore access right now
1Admin Console → Groups (or Members for individual)
2Find the group/user that hit the limit
3Increase the Spend limit to a higher value
4Save — access is restored within minutes
Set the new limit to 150% of expected month-end spend, not just barely above the breach point. Raising it again mid-month is disruptive.
Restrict or remove access for an individual
Admin Console → Members
Spend only
Set a low individual spend limit on the user. They retain access but cannot generate significant spend.
Suspend
Admin Console → Members → ⋮ → Deactivate member. The user cannot log in. Reactivation is instant when needed.
Remove
Admin Console → Members → ⋮ → Remove member. Seat is released. Conversations are not deleted — the user's data remains in line with your data retention settings.
Setting limits that work
Months 1–3Observe without limits (or very high caps). Use the Usage Dashboard to gather real spend by group.
Months 3–4Analyse average spend and P90 spend per group. Identify peak months.
Set limitsSet caps at 130–150% of observed peak monthly spend per group. Leave headroom for busy periods.
QuarterlyReview and adjust. A team starting a new intensive use case will outgrow last quarter's limit.