---
title: Spending this month and the spending limit
summary: The Spending this month tab shows what a month's money went on, by kind and by assistant; the owner can set a monthly limit that stops the online admin and the assistant, and only them, when it is reached.
tools: [talemo_get_billing]
related: [credits-and-packs, balance-and-organisation, low-balance-stages]
search: [monthly limit, spending this month, bill, invoice, AI spending]
---

# Spending this month and the spending limit

Three tabs of **Balance and spending** answer where the money went and how to
keep the spending in bounds.

## Spending this month

Each business has its own spending. The **Spending this month** tab lists the
dollars of a calendar month, counted in UTC, by kind of spending, with the total
at the bottom:

- **Online admin and assistant**, one line per assistant: the online admin answers
  clients, the assistant works for the owner and the team. Charged per run.
- **Knowledge search:** the assistant finds a note by meaning.
- Keeping the data and Talemo's work for the business: messages through the
  channels, signing the team in, emails and everything Talemo does on your actions.
  They stand in groups: **Data storage**, **Talemo's work**, **Staff sign-ins** and
  **Emails**, and whatever the screen has no name for yet is in **Other**. A grey
  line under each group says what it is made of. Above them it says "Storage and
  running · up to" and a date: the costs are already counted up to that day,
  inclusive. Charged once a day, three days late: a day's costs become final only
  then. The last days of a month are therefore still empty here, and the next days
  are added one by one.

A line that cost less than a cent shows as "less than $0.01". A month with no
spending says that nothing was spent.

Below the dollars there is a separate block, **WhatsApp · templates**. It shows
how many visit confirmations and reminders went out as WhatsApp templates in the
month. They are marked "not from the balance": Meta bills the business's WhatsApp
account directly, at its own rates.

## What it went on

The **What it went on** tab splits the spending of the online admin and the
assistant by assistant: the money each one spent and the number of its runs.
Knowledge search, storage and Talemo's work are separate lines of the
**Spending this month** tab and are not in this split.

## Spending limit

The **Spending limit** tab sets an amount in dollars a month for the online admin
and the assistant. The owner types it and presses **Save**; leaving it empty
means no limit, and they then spend as much as the balance allows.

- The limit counts only the online admin and the assistant. Storage, Talemo's
  work and incoming messages go past it, because otherwise clients could not reach
  the business.
- It applies at once and counts the whole current month, including what was
  already spent.
- When they reach the limit they stop until the next month begins or until the
  limit is raised. Everything else keeps working. Talemo's message says that the
  month's limit is used up and that the owner of the business can raise it.

An administrator sees the limit and the spending but cannot change it. A program
connected over MCP cannot change it either; `talemo_get_billing` only reads
the money.

## The online admin's daily ceiling

The online admin has a ceiling of its own, an amount in dollars a day, shown with
the rights it was given (see [Team and roles](../account/team-and-roles.md)).
When it is reached, the online admin stops for the day, clients' messages wait
for the team, and it answers again the next day.

## The limit and the balance

The limit is separate from the balance. The online admin and the assistant also
stop when the balance reaches the reserve, whatever the limit says (see
[Low balance and blocks](low-balance-stages.md)).