> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.caged.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Billing & Budgets

> Understand pricing, set budget guards, and manage costs.

# Billing & Budgets

Caged charges for two things: **compute time** and **LLM tokens** (when using Caged-provided models).

## Pricing

### Compute

| Resource       | Rate                 |
| -------------- | -------------------- |
| vCPU           | \$0.01/hour per core |
| Memory         | \$0.005/hour per GB  |
| Disk           | \$0.001/hour per GB  |
| Network egress | \$0.01/GB            |

Paused sandboxes incur **no compute charges**.

### Plans

| Plan       | Monthly | Included Compute | Concurrent Sandboxes |
| ---------- | ------- | ---------------- | -------------------- |
| Free       | \$0     | 10 hours         | 2                    |
| Pro        | \$29    | 100 hours        | 10                   |
| Team       | \$99    | 500 hours        | 50                   |
| Enterprise | Custom  | Custom           | Unlimited            |

Overages beyond included compute are billed at the standard rates.

## Budget Guards

Set a maximum dollar amount per sandbox. When the budget is reached, the sandbox is automatically destroyed.

### Via CLI

```bash theme={null}
caged up --budget 5.00
```

### Via Config

```yaml theme={null}
# .caged.yaml
budget: 5.00
```

### Via API

```bash theme={null}
curl -X POST https://api.caged.dev/v1/sandboxes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer caged_sk_..." \
  -d '{"template": "node-20", "budget": 5.00}'
```

## Budget Alerts

Automatic alerts fire at budget thresholds:

| Threshold | Alert Type        | Action              |
| --------- | ----------------- | ------------------- |
| 80%       | `budget_warning`  | Notification sent   |
| 95%       | `budget_critical` | Urgent notification |
| 100%      | `budget_exceeded` | Sandbox destroyed   |

Customize thresholds in **Dashboard → Settings → Alert Rules**.

## Monitoring Spend

### Real-Time

```bash theme={null}
caged status cage-a1b2c3d4
# Shows current cost, budget remaining, burn rate
```

### Dashboard

The dashboard shows:

* Per-sandbox cost breakdown
* Daily/weekly/monthly spend charts
* Cost by agent type
* Projected monthly spend

### API

```bash theme={null}
curl https://api.caged.dev/v1/billing/subscription \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer caged_sk_..."
```

## Cost Optimization Tips

1. **Use idle timeouts** — Auto-pause inactive sandboxes to stop compute charges
2. **Set budgets** — Always set a budget guard to prevent runaway costs
3. **Right-size resources** — Use 1 vCPU / 512MB for simple tasks
4. **Use snapshots** — Pause and snapshot instead of keeping sandboxes running
5. **Clean up** — Destroy sandboxes you're done with