# AI budget caps

Canonical page: https://www.questionpunk.com/support/ai-budget-cap

Set a per-survey spending limit on AI credits to control costs.

Time: 2-3 minutes

Level: Beginner

Audience: Researchers, Admins, Team leads

## Steps

### 1. Open the budget cap modal

In the survey editor, open **Settings** and find the **AI Budget Cap** section. Click to configure.

### 2. Set the cap

Use the slider to set the maximum AI credit spend for this survey. The modal shows an approximate respondent count based on your cap.

### 3. Choose pause behavior

Toggle **Pause AI when reached**. When on, AI features (interviews, follow-ups, analysis) are paused for new respondents once the cap is hit. When off, spend is tracked but AI keeps running.

### 4. Monitor spend

The budget cap modal shows current spend vs. cap in real time. You receive a warning when the cap is approaching or reached.

## Details

AI budget caps prevent cost surprises on studies with many respondents or long AI interviews. Set a dollar amount and optionally auto-pause AI when the limit is reached.

The cap applies to all respondent-facing AI costs on the survey: AI interviews, audio interviews, AI follow-ups, and AI-powered analysis.

Budget caps are intentionally soft limits — if multiple respondents are completing AI interviews simultaneously when the cap is hit, their sessions finish normally. Only new sessions are paused.

You can adjust or remove the cap at any time. Increasing the cap resumes AI features immediately if they were paused.

## Related articles

- [Manage subscription](https://www.questionpunk.com/support/account-manage-subscription.md)
- [How AI interviews work](https://www.questionpunk.com/support/ai-how-it-works.md)