How Budget Controls Work
Pharen Hub tracks AI usage in real time and compares it against the limits you configure. When usage approaches or hits a threshold, Pharen Hub takes the action you defined — sending an alert, pausing usage, or routing a request through an approval flow. Budget controls are additive: a team-level limit stacks on top of the workspace-level limit, so the stricter limit always wins.Workspace Limits
A ceiling on total AI spending across your entire workspace. Useful for enforcing an organization-wide monthly budget.
Team Limits
Per-team spending caps that let different teams operate within their own allocated budgets independently of each other.
Process Limits
Limits tied to specific AI-intensive processes or automations, so a single runaway workflow can’t exhaust shared resources.
Setting a Workspace-Level Spending Limit
1
Open Budget Controls
Go to Workspace Settings → Security & Admin → Budget Controls. The overview page shows your current spending for the billing period alongside any active limits.
2
Create a workspace limit
Click Add Limit → Workspace Limit. Enter the maximum dollar amount you want to allow for the current billing period. Pharen Hub resets this counter automatically at the start of each new billing period.
3
Set alert thresholds
Configure one or more alert thresholds — expressed as a percentage of the limit — at which Pharen Hub will notify admins. For example, set alerts at 75% and 90% so you have time to react before hitting the ceiling.
4
Choose the limit action
Decide what happens when the workspace limit is reached:
- Alert only — notify admins but allow usage to continue
- Pause AI features — suspend all AI usage until an admin raises the limit or the billing period resets
- Require approval — route any additional AI requests through an approval flow
5
Save the limit
Click Save Limit. The limit is active immediately and applies to all AI usage in the workspace from this point forward.
Workspace-level limits apply to all teams collectively. If your teams have widely different usage needs, consider setting individual team limits instead of (or in addition to) a workspace limit.
Setting a Team-Level Spending Limit
1
Navigate to team budget settings
From Budget Controls, click Add Limit → Team Limit. Alternatively, go to Workspace Settings → Teams, select a team, and open the Budget tab within that team’s settings.
2
Select the team
Use the dropdown to choose which team this limit applies to. You can create separate limits for as many teams as needed.
3
Enter the limit amount
Enter the maximum spend allowed for this team per billing period. This is an independent cap — the team will be subject to both this limit and the workspace-level limit if both are configured.
4
Configure notifications
Choose who receives alerts when this team’s usage approaches its limit:
- Workspace Admins — always notified
- Team Admins — add the team’s own admins to the notification list so they can manage their own budget
- Custom email — send alerts to a budget owner, finance contact, or distribution list outside of Pharen Hub
5
Save and repeat as needed
Save the team limit. Repeat this process for any other teams that need their own caps.
Configuring Approval Rules
Approval rules add a human checkpoint before a high-cost AI action runs. This is especially useful for batch processing, large document analysis, or any automated workflow that could consume significant credits in a single run.1
Open Approval Rules
From Budget Controls, select the Approval Rules tab.
2
Create a new rule
Click New Approval Rule. Each rule has three parts: a trigger, a scope, and an approver.
3
Define the trigger
Set the condition that triggers the approval requirement. Options include:
- Estimated cost threshold — require approval when a single request is estimated to cost more than a set dollar amount
- Usage milestone — require approval when a team or user has consumed more than X% of their allocated budget
- Specific action types — require approval for certain action types, such as bulk document processing or large context requests
4
Set the scope
Define whether this rule applies to the entire workspace, a specific team, or individual members. Narrower scopes let you apply stricter rules only where needed.
5
Assign approvers
Choose who must approve requests that match this rule:
- A specific admin or manager
- Anyone with the Admin role
- A custom approval group you’ve defined
6
Set an approval timeout
Decide what happens if no one approves within your configured window (for example, 24 hours):
- Deny automatically — the request is cancelled
- Escalate — forward to a secondary approver
- Allow automatically — the request proceeds (use with caution)
7
Save the rule
Click Save Rule. The rule is active immediately. Members who trigger it will see an in-app notification that their request is pending approval, and approvers will receive an alert to review it.
Monitoring Costs
The Spending Dashboard gives you a real-time view of AI usage across your workspace. You don’t need to wait for an invoice to understand where costs are going.1
Open the Spending Dashboard
Go to Workspace Settings → Security & Admin → Budget Controls → Spending Dashboard.
2
Review workspace-level spend
The top section shows total spend for the current billing period, your configured limit, and the percentage consumed. A color-coded indicator turns yellow at 75% and red at 90% of any active limit.
3
Drill down by team
Scroll to the By Team breakdown to see how much each team has spent in the current period, their individual limits (if set), and the percentage consumed. Click any team row to see a more detailed view of which members or processes drove that team’s usage.
4
Review historical trends
Switch to the Trends tab to see spending over the past 3, 6, or 12 months. Use this view to spot anomalies, forecast future budgets, and understand seasonal usage patterns.
5
Export spending data
Click Export to download a CSV of spending data filtered by date range, team, or member. This is useful for internal chargebacks, budget reviews, or sharing data with your finance team.
Spending data in the dashboard reflects usage as of the previous hour. For real-time tracking of a specific operation in progress, check the activity feed within that team or project.
Budget Control Best Practices
Start with alerts before setting hard limits
Start with alerts before setting hard limits
When first enabling budget controls, set alert thresholds at 75% and 90% of your expected spend but leave the limit action as Alert only. This gives you a billing period’s worth of real usage data before you decide where to set hard limits, preventing you from accidentally blocking legitimate work.
Align team limits with allocated headcount budgets
Align team limits with allocated headcount budgets
If your organization allocates AI spend per team or per seat, use team limits to enforce those allocations directly in Pharen Hub. Set the limit to match the team’s quarterly or monthly allocation, and enable the Team Admin spending dashboard so leads manage their own budgets.
Use process limits for scheduled automations
Use process limits for scheduled automations
Automated workflows — like nightly document summaries or scheduled data processing — are a common source of unexpected costs. Assign a process-level limit to each scheduled automation so a misconfiguration can’t exhaust the workspace budget overnight.
Review and adjust limits each billing period
Review and adjust limits each billing period
Budgets should reflect how your team actually works. At the start of each billing period, review the previous period’s spending trends and adjust limits accordingly. What was sufficient three months ago may be too low as your team grows.