Cost & Budgets
The Usage tab on the Models page tracks the estimated cost of processing and lets you set spend budgets that can alert you (or pause processing) when a limit is reached.
Every cost figure in DocAI Fabric is an estimate, computed from the rates you configure: it is not a billed amount and does not come from your AI provider's invoice. Use it for tracking and budgeting, not reconciliation.
Cost rates
Each model carries an optional cost rate, shown in the Est. cost column on the Models tab:
| Model kind | Rate | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| LLM model | input + output token price | per 1M input tokens / per 1M output tokens |
| OCR engine | page price | per page |
- System model rates are set by the platform administrator (they apply to all tenants).
- Tenant model rates are set by you, in the model's Edit dialog under Estimated cost.
If a model has no rate configured, the column shows -, and that model contributes 0 to all cost and budget figures, so an unconfigured rate reads as "free", which is usually not what you want. Set a rate on every model you actually use. (Local/free engines such as on-box OCR are correctly left unset.)
Currency
There is a single platform-wide currency (set by the platform administrator). All cost and budget figures across every tenant use it: there is no per-tenant currency and no currency conversion, which keeps system-model and tenant-model costs directly comparable.
Usage tab: cost tracking
The Usage tab shows how much processing has been done and its estimated cost:
- An Estimated cost summary widget (shown once at least one rate is configured).
- A per-model usage table with calls, pages, input/output tokens, errors, and an Est. cost column.
- Drill-downs by project and by task (classification, extraction, …).
Models without a configured rate show - in the cost column and are excluded from the totals.
Compute-on-read pricing
Cost is calculated when you view it, using the current rates; it is not stored at processing time. This means changing a rate retroactively restates history: if you correct a model's price, every past period's estimated cost (and every budget's spend) updates to match. There is no need to re-process anything.
Budgets
A budget is an estimated-spend ceiling over a period. Budgets are managed on the Usage tab: all configured budgets are always listed with a live progress bar, and you create, edit, or delete one from a dialog (settings never clutter the page).
Scope and period
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Scope | Tenant (covers all processing for the tenant) or Project (one specific project). |
| Period | absolute (a single running total), annual, monthly, weekly, or daily. |
For recurring periods the spend resets at the start of each new window (each month, week, etc.).
What a budget does
Each budget has two independent switches:
- Enabled: the budget tracks spend and (if recipients are listed) sends email alerts.
- Stop processing when reached: the budget also pauses processing once the limit is hit. With this off, the budget is informational only.
The budget list makes the mode obvious at a glance:
- 🔔 Notify only: sends alerts; processing continues.
- 🚫 Stops processing: pauses processing when the limit is reached.
Email notifications
When a budget is enabled and has at least one recipient, DocAI Fabric emails the list as estimated spend crosses 50%, 75%, 80%, 90%, 95%, and 100% of the limit. Each threshold fires once per window. The email states whether the budget will pause processing at the limit or is alert-only (and, if alert-only, how to turn enforcement on).
Email requires SMTP to be configured for your deployment. If it is not, enforcement (Stop processing when reached) still works; only the emails are skipped.
How enforcement works
When Stop processing when reached is on and the budget is at or over its limit:
- Model-consuming steps pause: split, classification, extraction, and OCR stop running.
- The AI assistant declines to reply while the budget is exceeded.
- Import and export are never blocked, and new transactions are still accepted and queued - they simply wait.
Paused work resumes automatically when the window resets (e.g. the new month begins) or when you raise the limit. Re-processing is incremental: splitting skips windows already done, and classification/extraction skip documents already completed.
Enforcement reuses the same pause mechanism as a temporary infrastructure shortage: there is no separate "budget paused" status. A paused step appears in the Activity Log as Paused for budget. If a budget stays exceeded for a long time, the step eventually fails like an infrastructure issue and can be re-run later once there is budget available.
Because spend is estimated from your configured rates, enforcement is only as accurate as those rates. If processing is not pausing when you expect, check that the relevant models and OCR engines have non-zero rates set on the Models tab.