> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.nops.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Budgets

> Set AI spend targets per group or per seat, compare them against seat limits, and forecast where the period is heading.

**Budgets** turns your [Wallets](/ai/wallets) allocation into numbers you can hold people to. The **Planning** view is where you set targets and see them next to the seat limits you have actually issued. **Budgets vs. Actual** is where you watch the period play out with a rolling forecast.

<Note>
  Budgets requires seat tracking admin rights and unlocks once your allocation has at least one group.
</Note>

## Get started

1. Sign in to [nOps](https://clara.nops.io/dashboard).
2. In the sidebar, open **AI → Budgets**.
3. Review the targets setup generated from your recent spend, and adjust them.
4. Switch to **Budgets vs. Actual** to see how the current period is tracking.

The budget behind this page is an ordinary nOps budget backed by an Explorer report, so everything in [Budgets (Operate)](/operate/budgets) — alerts, CSV round-trips, period schedules — applies to it too.

## Planning

### Summary cards

| Card                         | What it tells you                                         |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Sum of individual limits** | Every seat limit you have issued, added up.               |
| **Limits vs target**         | Whether those limits fit inside the target, or exceed it. |

The second card is the one to watch. Handing out more limit than you budgeted is not an error, but it is a decision, and this is where you find out you made it.

### The group grid

| Column             | Meaning                                                                                                       |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Group**          | The allocation group (or user, in user mode).                                                                 |
| **Previous**       | The previous period's spend.                                                                                  |
| **Avg lookback**   | The average over the lookback window.                                                                         |
| **Period columns** | One column per budget period, holding the target.                                                             |
| **Seat spend**     | Provider period-to-date spend, live from the Cursor or Claude Enterprise APIs for the current billing period. |
| **Limit**          | The sum of seat limits in that group.                                                                         |
| **Remaining**      | Limit still available.                                                                                        |
| **Seats**          | How many seats are in the group.                                                                              |

A **Targets** row totals the grid. On a bottom-up budget you edit each group's periods and the total rolls up; on a top-down budget you edit the **Targets** row total and the group rows move proportionally.

Search with **Search groups…** when the list gets long.

<Note>
  The two halves of this grid come from different places. Period targets and actuals come from the linked Explorer report. **Seat spend**, **Limit**, and **Remaining** come from live provider APIs. They can legitimately disagree for the current period.
</Note>

### Roll up by group or vendor

The **Roll up by** toggle changes the lens:

* **Group** — roll spend up by allocation group, with editable targets. This is the working view.
* **Vendor** — roll the same seats up by AI vendor (Claude, Cursor, and so on).

Vendor is a read-only lens, reachable directly with `?budgetBy=vendor`. Its period columns cover the current period and earlier, drawn from the monthly spend rollup; future periods hold targets, which stay on the Group view. Vendor mode is not available when your allocation is organized by user.

### Context banners

The grid tells you when something upstream is incomplete rather than quietly showing zeroes:

* **Enable AI providers to sync seat usage** — no provider is syncing seats yet.
* **Your allocation rules are per user** — you are in user mode and the group lens does not apply.
* **Waiting for seat usage** — providers are connected but no usage has landed.
* **Group membership is still loading** — figures will settle in a moment.

You will also see a warning when your targets have gone stale relative to the allocation behind them, which usually means you changed groups in Wallets and should regenerate.

## Budgets vs. Actual

Reachable from the second tab, or directly with `?view=actual`. The header reads **Track & Forecast**: AI seat spend with a rolling daily forecast.

### Period summary

| Card               | What it shows                                       |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Budget planned** | The target for the current period.                  |
| **Budget actuals** | Actual spend, with what percent of planned that is. |
| **Variance**       | How far over or under you are, in dollars.          |

### Controls

* **Forecast horizon** — 14 days, 30 days, 2 months, or 3 months. It defaults to 3 months. Training history scales with the horizon, so a longer projection is fit on more history rather than extrapolated from a couple of weeks.
* **Group filter** — narrow the forecast to one allocation group, or leave it on **All groups**.
* **Scope** — **All Project Usage**, **My Department**, or **My Usage**. You only see the scopes you have access to; a seat holder with no admin role sees their own usage.

If you have an open limit request, your own view surfaces it here with the requested and current limits, so you are not left wondering whether anyone saw it.

## FAQs

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Where did my initial targets come from?">
    Setup generates them as a monthly, bottom-up budget over 12 periods, starting from the average of your recent monthly spend with no growth applied. If your AI spend history is shorter than the lookback window, the average uses whatever months exist.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why don't Seat spend and the period actual match?">
    They are different sources on purpose. Actuals come from the Explorer report behind the budget; **Seat spend** is live period-to-date spend straight from the provider API. Within a period, the live figure moves first.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I edit targets on the Vendor view?">
    No. Vendor is a read-only roll-up. Targets are edited on the Group view.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I set alerts on this budget?">
    Yes — it is a normal nOps budget. Configure threshold alerts from the budget itself. See [Budgets](/operate/budgets).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My targets say they're stale.">
    That happens after the underlying allocation changes. Regenerate targets so they match your current groups.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Wallets](/ai/wallets)
* [Automated Rebalance](/ai/automated-rebalance)
* [Budgets (Operate)](/operate/budgets)
* [Set up AI seat tracking](/ai/setup)