Limits and pricing

Hosted agents use the same workspace boundary as the rest of Akua. Sessions are cheap to keep open, but model usage, retained runtimes, filesystem storage, and automated triggers need explicit limits.

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Limits that apply to agents

Agent limits use per-workspace admission control before expensive work starts, so an agent cannot silently exceed runtime, provider, or automation limits. When a limit blocks work before a turn is accepted, the API should return a structured error and create no turn. If work was accepted but a later runtime or budget gate blocks progress, the turn should expose a structured admission error that names the limit, scope, current usage, maximum, and retry timing when a retry is useful. Usage summaries should separate provider cost, retained runtime compute, retained filesystem storage, API/MCP calls, and ambient trigger runs.

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Pricing model

Agents support two billing paths: Retained runtimes are separate from model usage. A long-running coding task can consume compute, storage, and provider budget, while a read-only triage turn may only use platform tools and a small model budget.

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Usage dimensions

Agent usage is reported separately so teams can see what drove cost or limits:

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Cost controls

Use agent policy to keep spend predictable:

• Set model budgets for agents that run automatically.
• Prefer Code Mode for platform operations that do not need files or shell access.
• Start retained runtimes only when repository, package manager, browser, or test work is required.
• Use cooldowns for ambient triggers.
• Expire retained filesystems unless the session is pinned.
• Require approval before shell commands, network egress, repository change request acceptance, or secret access.