Cost Gating

Problem

If the agent just executes whatever steps it judges useful, an over-eager research task can quietly burn through a hundred-euro budget on a question that should have cost one euro, and the user only finds out when the invoice arrives. If the agent asks for permission on every paid call, users learn to click through the prompts and the gating becomes theatre. Without a forecast of cost and a meaningful threshold, the team must choose between surprise bills and approval fatigue.

Solution

Estimate cost before invoking the expensive action. If the estimate exceeds the threshold, surface it to the user (or operator) and require explicit approval. Track running totals against per-session and per-period budgets.

When to use

• Some agent actions are expensive enough that surprise costs would erode user trust.
• Cost can be estimated before invoking the action with reasonable accuracy.
• A user or operator approval path exists for expensive actions.