How to Set Up Per-User Token Budgets
When multiple team members share an OpenClaw instance, one power user can burn through the entire API budget, leaving nothing for others. Per-user budgets let you set daily and monthly token limits for each user, track usage individually, and gracefully handle over-limit scenarios without disrupting the team.
Why This Is Hard to Do Yourself
These are the common pitfalls that trip people up.
Shared budget chaos
One user runs expensive automations and uses 80% of the monthly budget in week one. Rest of team is throttled.
No user identification
Default OpenClaw doesn't track which user made which request. All usage looks the same.
Fair allocation
How do you fairly distribute token budgets? Equal per person? By role? By project?
Handling over-limit users
User hits their limit mid-task. Do you hard-stop them? Warn them? Let them continue at reduced priority?
Step-by-Step Guide
Enable user identification
Tag each request with user ID.
Warning: Per-user budgets require user identification. If your OpenClaw instance has no auth, you must add it first or use API keys to identify users.
Create per-user budget config
Define limits for each user.
Set daily and monthly limits per user
Configure time-based resets.
Configure warning messages
Notify users before hard limits.
Set up admin dashboard
View all users' token usage.
Handle over-limit users
Decide what happens when budget is exceeded.
Warning: Hard stops can frustrate users mid-task. Consider soft limits with admin review or reduced priority routing instead.
Need Custom Per-User Budget Logic?
Basic per-user budgets are straightforward, but enterprise setups need role-based limits, department budgets, project-based allocation, and custom enforcement logic. Our experts design and implement token budget systems tailored to your team structure.
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