Setting a Project Budget
1
Open project Settings
Navigate to your project and click the Settings tab in the top navigation.
2
Go to the Budget tab
Select the Budget tab within project settings.
3
Enter a dollar amount
Type your budget ceiling in the Budget limit field. The value is in USD.
4
Save
Click Save. The budget becomes active immediately — all subsequent messages are checked against this ceiling.
How Enforcement Works
Every time a project member sends a message, ParleHub runs a pre-flight cost estimate before the request reaches the model. If the estimated cost would push total project spend past the budget ceiling, the send is blocked and the member sees a clear explanation of why. At 80% of the budget, a warning banner appears for all project members. This gives your team — and any admins monitoring the project — time to evaluate spend and decide whether to increase the budget before work stalls.Requesting a Budget Increase
When a send is blocked, the member does not need to email an admin or open a support ticket. A Request increase button appears directly in the blocked-send dialog. Clicking it routes a budget increase request to every project admin instantly. Admins review and approve the request from the project’s Budget tab:1
Open the Budget tab
Go to project Settings → Budget. Pending increase requests appear at the top of the page.
2
Review the request
See who requested the increase, the current budget, and current spend.
3
Approve or adjust
Enter a new ceiling and click Approve. The requester can send immediately — no page refresh needed.
Budget Stacking
Project budgets do not operate in isolation. ParleHub enforces three stacked layers, each acting as a backstop for the one inside it:Project Budget
The innermost layer. Scoped to a single project. Set by the project creator or any project admin. Stops spend on that engagement before it reaches personal or org limits.
Personal Cap
A per-user spending limit set by the org admin. Applies across all projects that member participates in. Triggers if the member approaches their individual ceiling regardless of project budget headroom.
Org-Wide Cap
The outermost backstop. Set by the org admin. No single project or member can push total org spend past this ceiling, regardless of individual project or personal cap settings.
Billing Modes
ParleHub supports two billing modes. You choose the mode that matches how your firm wants to handle AI costs.Project Budget mode (default)
Project Budget mode (default)
Each project enforces its own dollar ceiling. Sends that would exceed the project budget are blocked pre-flight. This is the recommended mode for client-facing engagements where costs must stay within a defined scope.
Platform Consumption mode
Platform Consumption mode
The organization absorbs AI costs centrally. Per-project blocking is disabled — members can send freely up to the org-wide cap. Usage is still tracked and attributed per project, so you retain full visibility without hard stops. This mode suits internal knowledge work or exploratory projects where cost containment is less critical than continuity.
You can switch billing modes in Org Settings → Billing. The change applies to all projects immediately. Existing per-project budgets are preserved and re-activate if you switch back to Project Budget mode.