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A retry loop, traffic spike, or long-running agent can raise usage faster than you expect. Spending caps warn you before that usage reaches the amount you choose, then pause new work for the affected scope. If you only set one cap, start with an organization cap. It protects the total bill. Add project caps when a team, environment, customer, or experiment needs a tighter boundary.

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Which cap should you use?

Organization cap

Counts out-of-pocket usage after monthly credits. At 100%, new usage pauses across every project.Use it as the final guardrail for your KERNEL bill.

Project cap

Counts one project’s gross usage before organization credits. At 100%, only that project pauses.Use it to isolate a workload, team, environment, or customer.
Use both for a multi-project production setup: one organization cap for the total bill, plus lower project caps where a single workload needs tighter control. Subscription fees don’t count toward either cap. Spending caps apply to usage charges.

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Set a cap

1

Open billing

Go to the KERNEL billing page as an organization admin.
2

Choose the scope

In Spending Cap, select Organization or Project. For a project cap, select the project you want to control.
3

Set the monthly amount

Enter the usage amount in usd and save. The card shows month-to-date progress against the limit.
Availability varies by scope:
  • Organization caps: Available to eligible self-serve organizations. Enterprise access is in limited preview.
  • Project caps: In limited preview for all organizations.
Email support@kernel.sh to request preview access.

Open billing

Set an organization spending cap or manage the project caps available to your organization.

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What happens during the month

1

Usage starts a new period

KERNEL evaluates each cap from the first day of the month at 00:00 utc. Organization and project usage accumulate independently.
2

KERNEL warns at 80%

KERNEL sends a warning email. Existing and new work continue.
3

New work pauses at 100%

New browser sessions and app invocations return a 403 for the affected scope. Running work continues until it ends.
4

The cap resets next month

New work resumes when the next monthly period starts. An organization admin can also increase or remove the cap at any time.
A spending cap is an admission guardrail, not a transactional hard ceiling. Billing events take time to evaluate, and already-running work can continue adding usage after the threshold is reached. Leave headroom below any budget that must not be exceeded.

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How spend is counted

An organization cap measures usage after KERNEL applies your included monthly credits:
For example, an organization with $50 in monthly usage credits sets a $100 cap:
  • KERNEL sends the 80% warning at $130 in gross usage: $50 in credits plus $80 in out-of-pocket usage.
  • KERNEL pauses new usage at $150 in gross usage: $50 in credits plus the $100 cap.
  • The plan’s subscription fee remains separate.
Choose this cap when your main requirement is a predictable maximum for monthly usage charges, regardless of which project creates the spend.

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Layer organization and project caps

Organization and project caps are independent. KERNEL doesn’t allocate the organization cap among projects, and project caps don’t have to add up to it.

A project reaches its cap

KERNEL pauses new work for that project. Other projects continue.

The organization reaches its cap

KERNEL pauses new work across every project, even if individual project caps have room left.

Both thresholds are reached

The organization cap takes precedence because it applies to the full organization.
If a project cap is higher than the organization cap plus monthly credits, the organization cap can trigger first. The dashboard warns you about this configuration but still lets you save it because later changes to credits or either cap can change which threshold comes first.

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Common setups

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Operational details

Already-running browser sessions and app invocations continue until they end. Read and delete requests remain available, along with selected non-billable administrative operations such as managing projects, limits, and api keys.Browser pools can maintain idle capacity, but you can’t acquire a new browser for a capped scope.
The scope can enter the reached state as soon as billing data finishes evaluating. Raise or remove the cap if you need to resume new work before the next monthly period.
Organization members can view cap status. Only organization admins can set, edit, or remove caps.
Spending caps bound monthly usage cost. Concurrency limits bound simultaneous browser capacity. A spending cap doesn’t reserve throughput, and a concurrency limit doesn’t bound monthly spend.