How do you keep agent costs bounded?

medium

Answer

$\mathrm{Max}_{\mathrm{steps}}$
$\mathrm{Max}_{\mathrm{tokens}}$
$\mathrm{Max}_{\mathrm{cost}}$
$(4) Per-tool budgets ('search may be called at most 5 times').$
$(5) Model routing: use cheap model for tool selection, frontier model for final answer.$
$(6) Prompt caching for the system prompt + tools schema — huge win for repetitive workflows.$
$(7) Cheaper models for internal reasoning steps, frontier for final synthesis.$
$Log cost per trace to identify runaway prompts.$

Check yourself — multiple choice

No cost control
Max steps + max tokens + max cost + per-tool budgets + model routing + prompt caching + cost per trace logging
Only rate limit
Impossible

Agent cost control: caps + routing + caching + logging — multi-layered.

#agents#cost#production

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