How spend caps work on AWS and Google Cloud

AWS said on 16 September 2026: "you can set a monthly spend limit for your project based on your usage patterns so that you stay within your budget. If a project's usage reaches its spend limit, your project is paused for that month."

When you're ready to upgrade to a paid plan, you can set a monthly spend limit for your project based on your usage patterns so that you stay within your budget. If a project's usage reaches its spend limit, your project is paused for that month.

The AWS post of 16 September 2026 says "you can connect your coding agent to AWS with a single prompt that automatically installs the AWS CLI and the Agent Toolkit for AWS".

Once signup is complete, you can connect your coding agent to AWS with a single prompt that automatically installs the AWS CLI and the Agent Toolkit for AWS

AWS documentation: "Use a spend limit to set the most you'll pay per month for a project. Spend limits are at the project level. You can have spend limits on some of your projects and have other projects without spend limits."

Use a spend limit to set the most you'll pay per month for a project. Spend limits are at the project level. You can have spend limits on some of your projects and have other projects without spend limits.

AWS documentation: "You can apply spend limits to up to 10 projects."

You can apply spend limits to up to 10 projects.

AWS documentation: "the minimum allowed value is the greater of $20 or a conservative estimate of your likely spend."

When you set a spend limit, the minimum allowed value is the greater of $20 or a conservative estimate of your likely spend.

AWS documentation: "Spend limits exclude credits and apply to pre-tax charges."

Spend limits exclude credits and apply to pre-tax charges.

AWS documentation: "You'll receive notifications when actual costs reach 50%, 75%, and 90% of your limit, or when you are on track to reach or exceed your spend limit in the next 10 days."

You'll receive notifications when actual costs reach 50%, 75%, and 90% of your limit, or when you are on track to reach or exceed your spend limit in the next 10 days.

AWS documentation: about 7 days before you would reach your limit, new resources stop launching; about 5 days before, idle resources are paused; about 4 days before, your highest cost incurring active resources are paused, selected from EC2, RDS, Lambda, Bedrock, and SageMaker. These are optional early cost controls.

About 7 days before you would reach your limit, new resources stop launching. ... About 5 days before you would reach your limit, idle resources are paused. ... About 4 days before you would reach your limit, your highest cost incurring active resources are paused. ... we select the resources from these five services: EC2, RDS, Lambda, Bedrock, and SageMaker.

AWS documentation: "AWS pauses your project and stops all resources. Your data is preserved." and "To reactivate your project, increase your spend limit from AWS Settings."

AWS pauses your project and stops all resources. Your data is preserved. To reactivate your project, increase your spend limit from AWS Settings.

AWS documentation: "If you take no action within 90 days of your project being paused, AWS permanently deletes your project data."

If you take no action within 90 days of your project being paused, AWS permanently deletes your project data.

AWS documentation: "We're currently releasing our new experience to a limited number of customers." and "You must be on a Paid Plan to create a spend limit."

We're currently releasing our new experience to a limited number of customers. ... You must be on a Paid Plan to create a spend limit.

Google Cloud's post, dated July 29, 2026, says "Spend Caps is a new, native feature on Google Cloud Budgets that empowers you to set a monthly financial cap on specific services within a project. When accumulated spend reaches your defined cap, the system automatically restricts further cost-incurring usage for that specific service within that project."

July 29, 2026 ... Spend Caps is a new, native feature on Google Cloud Budgets that empowers you to set a monthly financial cap on specific services within a project. When accumulated spend reaches your defined cap, the system automatically restricts further cost-incurring usage for that specific service within that project.

Google Cloud says "Spend Caps for AI services trigger within minutes of hitting your defined threshold." and "It is non-destructive i.e your data and resources are not deleted, and services outside the scope of the budget are entirely unaffected."

Spend Caps for AI services trigger within minutes of hitting your defined threshold. ... It is non-destructive i.e your data and resources are not deleted, and services outside the scope of the budget are entirely unaffected.

Google Cloud says "any underlying fixed commitment fees (such as Committed Use Discounts or Provisioned Throughput) will continue to bill at their flat contractual rate."

any underlying fixed commitment fees (such as Committed Use Discounts or Provisioned Throughput) will continue to bill at their flat contractual rate.

Google Cloud says "During this Public Preview, you can apply Spend Caps to a single project and service for a fixed monthly timeframe." Supported services listed: Gemini API, Agent Platform, Cloud Run, Cloud Run Functions.

During this Public Preview, you can apply Spend Caps to a single project and service for a fixed monthly timeframe. ... Step 2: Enforce Spend Caps on Budgets ... Gemini API, Agent Platform, Cloud Run, Cloud Run Functions

Google Cloud says "if a Spend Cap is triggered, the usage block remains in place until it is manually lifted from the Google Cloud Budgets UI with a single click."

if a Spend Cap is triggered, the usage block remains in place until it is manually lifted from the Google Cloud Budgets UI with a single click.