Lava AI Spend: Budget Controls

What is AI Spend?

Lava AI Spend gives you per-tool budget controls for your AI usage. Create isolated spend keys for each AI tool you use — Cursor, Windsurf, ChatGPT, Claude, and more — with spending limits, model restrictions, and real-time tracking.

How Spend Keys Work

Each spend key is an isolated API key that draws from your Lava wallet. You assign one key per tool, so you can:

Track spending per tool — See exactly how much each AI tool costs you
Set budget limits — Daily, weekly, or monthly caps per key
Lock to specific models — Restrict which AI models a key can access (e.g., only GPT-4o, only Claude Sonnet)
Revoke instantly — Disable a key without affecting your other tools

Setting Up a Spend Key

Go to the AI Spend section of your Lava dashboard
Click "Create Spend Key"
Name the key (e.g., "Cursor", "ChatGPT")
Set optional spending limits and model restrictions
Copy the key and paste it into your AI tool's settings

Most AI tools let you set a custom API endpoint and key. Point the endpoint to Lava's proxy and use your spend key for authentication.

Budget Controls

Spend keys support three types of budget limits:

Daily limit — Maximum spend per day (resets at midnight UTC)
Weekly limit — Maximum spend per week
Monthly limit — Maximum spend per calendar month

When a limit is reached, requests through that key are blocked until the period resets. Your other keys and tools are unaffected.

Model Restrictions

You can lock a spend key to specific AI models. For example, you might allow a coding assistant to use only GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet, preventing it from making expensive calls to larger models. This gives you fine-grained cost control without changing your tool's configuration.

Who is AI Spend for?

AI Spend is for individuals and teams who use multiple AI tools and want visibility and control over their AI spending. Instead of managing separate subscriptions and payment methods for each tool, you use one Lava wallet with isolated budget controls per tool.