# Spend controls

> Stay in control of your bill: set a monthly message cap, choose what the agent does when it is reached (so it never just goes dark), get usage alerts at 50/80/100%, and never get billed for spam. No surprise charges, no silent auto-upgrades.

Spend controls put you — not the bill — in charge. The most common complaint about metered chat tools is billing that surprises you: automatic upgrades that are never reversed, a bot that stops mid-month and loses sales, and paying for bot spam. Bookbag is built the opposite way.

> **WHERE TO FIND IT:** Open **Usage** in the dashboard. The **Spend controls** card shows this month vs. your cap and lets you change everything below.

## Set a monthly message cap

Choose a maximum number of AI messages per month. We **never raise it automatically** — there is no auto-upgrade and no surprise overage. Leave it unset to simply use your plan's monthly allowance. If you set a cap lower than your plan, the lower number wins.

## Decide what happens at the cap

The point of a cap is to control cost — not to lose customers. When you reach it, the agent never just goes dark. You choose its behavior:

| Behavior | What happens |
| --- | --- |
| Keep capturing leads (default) | The agent keeps collecting visitor details so a busy month never means a lost sale. |
| Hand off to a human | Visitors are routed to your team and a handoff is opened. |
| Show a polite pause | An honest offline note until the next month or a higher cap. |
| Keep answering (overage) | Stay live past the cap — we just alert you. We still never auto-upgrade your plan. |

## Usage alerts

Get an email at **50%, 80%, and 100%** of your cap — once each per month — so you are never caught off guard. Toggle alerts on or off in the Spend controls card.

## Spam is never billed

Abusive bursts and repeated-message floods from a single visitor are rate-limited automatically and **do not count against your quota or balance**. Your messages are reserved for real customers. Leave the spam guard on (the default).

> **TIP:** Spend controls are workspace-wide and apply to every agent and channel. Changing them takes effect immediately.