# Per-call and session budgets for autonomous infrastructure agents

> Buyer agents can negotiate inference and API spend across providers without running up the bill. Conto enforces per-call caps, session budgets, and provider trust thresholds at the x402 layer.

- Human URL: https://conto.finance/industries/compute
- Raw Markdown: https://conto.finance/industries/compute.md
- Terminal view: https://conto.finance/ai/industries/compute

## Workflow

### 1. Agent finds the best-priced provider

The infrastructure agent compares providers, chooses a route, and drafts the call or purchase request with cost context attached.

### 2. Conto enforces runtime payment policy

Every call is checked against your per-call caps, session budgets, and approved providers before it can settle.

### 3. Normal usage flows, overspend stops

Low-cost calls continue without friction. Expensive requests or exhausted budgets are denied before the provider gets paid.

## Controls

### Per-call caps

Keep single inference or API payments under a hard limit so one bad route cannot explode costs.

### Session budgets

Stop repeated calls once the workflow has consumed its allocated budget for the session or task.

### Provider trust rules

Limit autonomous spending to known providers or trusted counterparties with acceptable pricing behavior.

### Velocity controls

Detect bursty call patterns that may signal a broken loop before they drain the wallet.

## Outcomes

- Engineering teams can let agents buy compute dynamically without accepting open-ended spend risk.
- Every paid request has a budget and policy decision attached to it.
- The same enforcement layer works for x402, service spend, and other machine-to-machine payment flows.

## Related Solutions

- [micropayments](https://conto.finance/solutions/micropayments)
- [vendor-and-counterparty-controls](https://conto.finance/solutions/vendor-and-counterparty-controls)
- [approval-routing](https://conto.finance/solutions/approval-routing)