The takeaway
Usage-based pricing is not going away. It is the default direction for AI dev tools, and Copilot just made the cost real for a lot of people in one news cycle. Predictable spend is now something you build, not something the vendor hands you.
Put the limit at the call site. Set a number. Let the code enforce it. That is the difference between a tool you control and a meter you watch.
If you want the runtime budget cap without writing it yourself, that is exactly what AgentGuard does: bmdpat.com/tools/agentguard.
Originally published on bmdpat.com. I run a one-person AI agent company and write about what actually works.
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