CHEAPUNO guide

How to set per-run call budgets and log used flags for agents?

Add hard ceilings on steps and tokens to agent loops to prevent runaway costs and track which calls were actually used.

CHEAPUNO EditorialSources checked 7 10 月, 2026

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What you are probably seeing

Your billing dashboard shows spikes that do not match your expected usage because agent loops keep calling tools or models until they hit a soft limit.

You notice that many API calls in your logs are marked as successful but the results are never saved or referenced in the final output, indicating wasted spend.

Why it happens

Agent systems often lack strict termination conditions, allowing them to iterate until they fail or timeout rather than stopping at a defined budget.

Without explicit logging for each tool or model call, you cannot distinguish between calls that contributed to the solution and those that were discarded during reasoning.

What changed recently

Step by step

1. Define a maximum step count and token limit for each agent run to establish a hard ceiling on resource consumption.

2. Implement a check at the start of every loop iteration that stops the agent if the accumulated cost or step count exceeds the defined budget.

3. Create a logging layer that records every individual tool or model call with a unique identifier for traceability.

4. Add a used flag to your logs to mark which calls were part of the final reasoning path versus those that were exploratory or discarded.

5. Review your logs weekly to identify patterns of wasted calls and adjust your budget thresholds to match actual operational needs.

Ways to go further

Better fit: Logging Techniques and Practices For when You are implementing the logging for model calls and usage status.. Open the free course on Alison ↗

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