A usage cap can be set at several levels: a daily or monthly allowance per person, a pooled budget for a team or cost centre, or a hard limit on an API key or session. The economics differ. A pooled team budget absorbs the natural spread between light and heavy users. A per-person cap set near typical use cuts the heaviest users first, whatever their use is worth.
Caps still have a place as a backstop against runaway agents and as a defence against cost-exhaustion attacks. As the main budget control, they are a cost decision standing in for a value decision. Token Budgets Are Not a Value Strategy works through an example and sets out the alternatives: budgets by use case, routing before rationing, cost per outcome and attribution coverage.
