---
title: "Budget Manager"
description: "import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs'; import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';"
type: skill
canonical_url: https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/budget-manager
source: "Claudary"
difficulty: intermediate
author: "Claude Code Knowledge Pack"
date: 2026-07-10T11:08:33.456Z
license: CC-BY-4.0
attribution: "Budget Manager — Claudary (https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/budget-manager)"
---

# Budget Manager
import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs'; import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';

## Overview

import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs';
import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';

# Budget Manager

Don't want to get crazy bills because either while you're calling LLM APIs **or** while your users are calling them? use this. 

:::info

If you want a server to manage user keys, budgets, etc. use our [LiteLLM Proxy Server](./proxy/virtual_keys.md)

:::

LiteLLM exposes: 
* `litellm.max_budget`: a global variable you can use to set the max budget (in USD) across all your litellm calls. If this budget is exceeded, it will raise a BudgetExceededError 
* `BudgetManager`: A class to help set budgets per user. BudgetManager creates a dictionary to manage the user budgets, where the key is user and the object is their current cost + model-specific costs. 
* `LiteLLM Proxy Server`: A server to call 100+ LLMs with an openai-compatible endpoint. Manages user budgets, spend tracking, load balancing etc. 

## quick start

```python 
import litellm, os 
from litellm import completion

# set env variable 
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "your-api-key"

litellm.max_budget = 0.001 # sets a max budget of $0.001

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Hey, how's it going"}]
completion(model="gpt-4", messages=messages)
print(litellm._current_cost)
completion(model="gpt-4", messages=messages)
```

## User-based rate limiting 
<a target="_blank" href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/BerriAI/litellm/blob/main/cookbook/LiteLLM_User_Based_Rate_Limits.ipynb">
  <img src="https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg" alt="Open In Colab"/>
</a>

```python
from litellm import BudgetManager, completion 

budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="test_project")

user = "1234"

# create a budget if new user user
if not budget_manager.is_valid_user(user):
    budget_manager.create_budget(total_budget=10, user=user)

# check if a given call can be made
if budget_manager.get_current_cost(user=user) <= budget_manager.get_total_budget(user):
    response = completion(model="gpt-3.5-turbo", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hey, how's it going?"}])
    budget_manager.update_cost(completion_obj=response, user=user)
else:
    response = "Sorry - no budget!"
```

[**Implementation Code**](https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm/blob/main/litellm/budget_manager.py)

## use with Text Input / Output

Update cost by just passing in the text input / output and model name. 

```python
from litellm import BudgetManager

budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="test_project")
user = "12345"
budget_manager.create_budget(total_budget=10, user=user, duration="daily")

input_text = "hello world"
output_text = "it's a sunny day in san francisco"
model = "gpt-3.5-turbo"

budget_manager.update_cost(user=user, model=model, input_text=input_text, output_text=output_text) # 👈
print(budget_manager.get_current_cost(user))
```

## advanced usage
In production, we will need to 
* store user budgets in a database
* reset user budgets based on a set duration 



### LiteLLM API

The LiteLLM API provides both. It stores the user object in a hosted db, and runs a cron job daily to reset user-budgets based on the set duration (e.g. reset budget daily/weekly/monthly/etc.). 

**Usage**
```python
budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="<my-unique-project>", client_type="hosted")
```

**Complete Code**
```python
from litellm import BudgetManager, completion 

budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="<my-unique-project>", client_type="hosted")

user = "1234"

# create a budget if new user user
if not budget_manager.is_valid_user(user):
    budget_manager.create_budget(total_budget=10, user=user, duration="monthly") # 👈 duration = 'daily'/'weekly'/'monthly'/'yearly'

# check if a given call can be made
if budget_manager.get_current_cost(user=user) <= budget_manager.get_total_budget(user):
    response = completion(model="gpt-3.5-turbo", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hey, how's it going?"}])
    budget_manager.update_cost(completion_obj=response, user=user)
else:
    response = "Sorry - no budget!"
```

### Self-hosted

To use your own db, set the BudgetManager client type to `hosted` **and** set the api_base. 

Your api is expected to expose `/get_budget` and `/set_budget` endpoints. [See code for details](https://github.com/BerriAI/litellm/blob/27f1051792176a7eb1fe3b72b72bccd6378d24e9/litellm/budget_manager.py#L7)

**Usage**
```python
budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="<my-unique-project>", client_type="hosted", api_base="your_custom_api")
```
**Complete Code**
```python
from litellm import BudgetManager, completion 

budget_manager = BudgetManager(project_name="<my-unique-project>", client_type="hosted", api_base="your_custom_api")

user = "1234"

# create a budget if new user user
if not budget_manager.is_valid_user(user):
    budget_manager.create_budget(total_budget=10, user=user, duration="monthly") # 👈 duration = 'daily'/'weekly'/'monthly'/'yearly'

# check if a given call can be made
if budget_manager.get_current_cost(user=user) <= budget_manager.get_total_budget(user):
    response = completion(model="gpt-3.5-turbo", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hey, how's it going?"}])
    budget_manager.update_cost(completion_obj=response, user=user)
else:
    response = "Sorry - no budget!"
```

## Budget Manager Class
The `BudgetManager` class is used to manage budgets for different users. It provides various functions to create, update, and retrieve budget information. 

Below is a list of public functions exposed by the Budget Manager class and their input/outputs. 

### __init__
```python
def __init__(self, project_name: str, client_type: str = "local", api_base: Optional[str] = None)
```
- `project_name` (str): The name of the project.
- `client_type` (str): The client type ("local" or "hosted"). Defaults to "local".
- `api_base` (Optional[str]): The base URL of the API. Defaults to None.


### create_budget
```python
def create_budget(self, total_budget: float, user: str, duration: Literal["daily", "weekly", "monthly", "yearly"], created_at: float = time.time())
```
Creates a budget for a user.

- `total_budget` (float): The total budget of the user.
- `user` (str): The user id.
- `duration` (Literal["daily", "weekly", "monthly", "yearly"]): The budget duration.
- `created_at` (float): The creation time. Default is the current time.

### projected_cost
```python
def projected_cost(self, model: str, messages: list, user: str)
```
Computes the projected cost for a session.

- `model` (str): The name of the model.
- `messages` (list): The list of messages.
- `user` (str): The user id.

### get_total_budget
```python
def get_total_budget(self, user: str)
```
Returns the total budget of a user.

- `user` (str): user id.

### update_cost
```python
def update_cost(self, completion_obj: ModelResponse, user: str)
```
Updates the user's cost.

- `completion_obj` (ModelResponse): The completion object received from the model.
- `user` (str): The user id.

### get_current_cost
```python
def get_current_cost(self, user: str)
```
Returns the current cost of a user.

- `user` (str): The user id.

### get_model_cost 
```python
def get_model_cost(self, user: str)
```
Returns the model cost of a user.

- `user` (str): The user id.

### is_valid_user 
```python
def is_valid_user(self, user: str) -> bool
```
Checks if a user is valid.

- `user` (str): The user id.

### get_users 
```python
def get_users(self)
```
Returns a list of all users.

### reset_cost 
```python
def reset_cost(self, user: str)
```
Resets the cost of a user.

- `user` (str): The user id.

### reset_on_duration 
```python
def reset_on_duration(self, user: str)
```
Resets the cost of a user based on the duration.

- `user` (str): The user id.

### update_budget_all_users 
```python
def update_budget_all_users(self)
```
Updates the budget for all users.

### save_data 
```python
def save_data(self)
```
Stores the user dictionary.

---

Source: [Claudary](https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/budget-manager) · https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com