Budget caps and alerts
Set spending caps and get notified before you blow past them.
Most teams want a safety net so a runaway bulk job or a misconfigured schedule can't run up an unexpected bill. Budget caps and alerts are how Norcube provides that.
Set a hard cap
A hard cap is the maximum amount your organization can accrue in a calendar month. When the running total crosses it, paid features pause until the next billing cycle.
- Open app.norcube.com → Billing → Budget.
- Set Hard cap to a monthly amount.
- Save.
The cap evaluates against your usage estimate continuously. When you
cross it, write endpoints in every product start returning
402 PAYMENT_REQUIRED. Read endpoints continue working so you can still
inspect what's there.
Set a soft cap
A soft cap is a warning threshold – Norcube emails you when usage crosses it but doesn't change behaviour.
Use a soft cap when you want awareness without disruption: set it at a fraction of your expected monthly spend, and a hard cap above as a runaway emergency brake.
Configure alert thresholds
Independent of caps, you can subscribe to percentage alerts at configurable thresholds. Email goes to the organization's billing contact (set under Billing → Preferences).
Each threshold fires once per billing period.
What happens when you hit the hard cap
- Norcube emails you immediately.
- Write endpoints across every product start returning
402 PAYMENT_REQUIRED. Existing scheduled jobs in flight finish; queued ones don't run. - Reads continue working – dashboard browsing, downloads, existing data access.
- The block lifts automatically at the start of the next billing cycle.
To restore service immediately, raise the cap or remove it.
Behaviour and edge cases
- The cap is a maximum, not a budget. You're billed for exactly what you used. Setting a cap doesn't pre-buy that amount.
- Soft cap > hard cap is invalid. The UI prevents it.
- A new org has no cap by default. Set one explicitly if you want the safety net.
Related
- Billing overview
- Dunning – the other "service paused" scenario, triggered by failed payments rather than caps.