> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://claude.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Set a spend limit
> Claude Tag draws from your organization's usage balance, not individual seats. See whether you need to fund usage, how to set the spend limit, and what happens when it's reached.
export const BetaNote = () => Claude Tag is in public beta. Features and behavior described here may change before general availability.;
Work Claude does in channels bills to your **organization's usage balance**, not to individual seats. The **spend limit** is a cap you set on how much of that balance Claude Tag can use each month.
| Work | Bills to | Capped by |
| :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Channel work | Your organization's usage balance | The spend limit, plus any [per-channel limits](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#set-spend-limits) |
| Reading a channel, [deciding whether to reply](/docs/claude-tag/users/when-claude-responds#what-claude-does-with-a-channel-message), and short replies from what Claude already knows | Nothing | Not counted toward any limit. A working session Claude starts from the channel is channel work, above |
| A DM with Claude | The sender's own seat | The seat's usual limits, not the spend limit |
## Whether this step is required depends on your plan
| Your plan | What you need to do here |
| :------------------------ | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Team** | **Required, before anything runs.** A Team plan has no usage balance until it's funded, and Claude won't respond in channels until it is. A [launch usage credit](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15575654-claude-tag-launch-promo-for-claude-team-and-enterprise) counts as a funded balance, so check for one before buying credits. Then set a spend limit. |
| **Enterprise (invoiced)** | **Recommended.** Usage bills to your invoice with no upper bound until you set a spend limit. Set one to cap exposure during the pilot. |
## Set the spend limit
Not every organization sees this page. A trial organization that hasn't enabled usage billing, a single-seat Team plan, an organization with a hybrid desktop deployment, or an admin whose role can't view billing is redirected to personal usage settings instead. If your organization bills through a reseller, the page is not available and these steps don't apply; your organization's usage is funded through the reseller instead.
Go to [`claude.ai/admin-settings/usage/claude-tag`](https://claude.ai/admin-settings/usage/claude-tag).
Enter an amount in your organization's billing currency. The spend limit resets at the start of each month and applies across every paired workspace. You can change it any time.
There's no published per-task cost guidance. For a pilot, set a spend limit you're comfortable with for the first month, then watch the per-channel usage breakdown on the same page and adjust. If a promotional credit covers the pilot's usage, that breakdown shows \$0.00. In that case, watch the **List price** column of the **Spend by channel** table at [`claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag`](https://claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag) instead.
## What happens when the spend limit is reached
When usage reaches the spend limit, Claude stops and tells the requester in the thread that it couldn't finish. The requester can ask an admin to raise the limit.
The spend limit counts usage at list price. If your organization has a negotiated discount, that discount applies at invoice time, not to the cap.
### Rate limits versus the spend limit
The spend limit caps how much your organization is charged. It doesn't change how fast Claude can work. Claude Tag also applies its own throughput limits on how quickly threads can be started and messages delivered, and an organization with many busy channels can hit one while the spend limit still has plenty of room.
When that happens, Claude tells the requester in the thread that it hit a rate limit and names a short wait, usually a few seconds. Re-send the message after the wait. Raising the spend limit doesn't clear a rate limit, and a rate-limited request doesn't spend anything.
| Claude says | Limit reached | What to do |
| :--------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The spend limit is reached | Spend limit | Raise it on the usage page above |
| It hit the session rate limit, or is rate limited delivering a message | Throughput limit | Wait the few seconds the reply names, then re-send. If your organization hits this often, contact your account team. |
## Per-channel limits
Per-channel limits and the per-channel spend breakdown are on the same usage page. See [Set spend limits](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#set-spend-limits) for the full set of controls.
## Attribute costs by channel
In claude.ai you see spend per channel, not per user. Channel work bills to your organization's usage balance, not to any user's seat.
The usage page at [`claude.ai/admin-settings/usage/claude-tag`](https://claude.ai/admin-settings/usage/claude-tag) shows spend broken down by channel, at list price. Usage covered by a promotional credit isn't counted there and shows as \$0.00. To see each channel's list-price spend for the current month including covered usage, use the **List price** column of the **Spend by channel** table at [`claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag`](https://claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag).
To attribute spend to teams or departments for showback or chargeback reporting, structure channels so each maps to one team or department, and give those channels [their own scopes](/docs/claude-tag/admins/attach-to-scope). The per-channel breakdown then reads as your per-team report, and per-channel spend limits act as team-level budgets.
Organizations on a Claude Enterprise plan can also pull channel spend per Slack user from the Analytics API, which attributes Claude's channel work to individual Slack users. See [Attribute costs to users](/docs/claude-tag/admins/attribute-costs).
DMs are separate. A DM bills to the sender's own seat, not to the organization's usage balance.
## See spend by kind of work
On the analytics page at [`claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag`](https://claude.ai/analytics/claude-tag), you see channel spend split into four categories. The page refreshes once a day, so today's activity appears tomorrow and a new month is empty until its first complete day. The split shows which kind of work is driving spend. For each billed category you see its share of channel spend over the period you pick; Monitoring shows as not billed. The shares are approximate; for exact amounts, use your invoice.
* **Engaged**: threads where someone @-mentioned Claude, replied to Claude, or asked it for a reminder
* **Proactive**: work Claude picked up or started on its own, before anyone addressed it
* **Scheduled**: recurring scheduled work
* **Monitoring**: Claude reading the channels it belongs to, which isn't billed
Reading a channel Claude belongs to, whether or not anyone tags it, doesn't draw from the usage balance. When Claude starts a working session on its own, that session bills to the balance under Proactive. To stop Claude from starting work on its own in a channel, turn off the channel's [Respond automatically](/docs/claude-tag/users/when-claude-responds#turn-automatic-replies-on-or-off) setting. DMs aren't included, because they bill to the sender's seat.
## Related resources
* [Verify your setup](/docs/claude-tag/admins/setup-overview#verify-your-setup): run a first task in a channel
* [Restrict where Claude Tag operates](/docs/claude-tag/admins/restrict-access#set-spend-limits): per-channel limits and the usage page in full