Skip to main content
Updated October 19, 2026 The spend cap is a monthly limit on what your apps cost. It is on for every account from the start, at $50 a month, and only sends emails. You can change the amount, turn it off, or have it pause your apps when it is reached.

​
How the cap works

  • It covers all the apps in your account, for each calendar month.
  • It counts usage: pay-as-you-go apps, and apps on a monthly plan only for what they run above their plan. The price of a monthly plan paid at checkout does not count.
  • The account owners and billing contacts get an email and a notice in the dashboard at 75% and 90% of the cap, and again when it is reached.
  • Raff checks spending every few minutes, so usage can pass the cap by a little before apps pause.

​
Set the cap

1

Open the Apps page

Go to Apps. The bar at the top shows what you spent this month and the cap, for example “12.40spentthismonth⋅cap12.40 spent this month · cap 50, email only”.
2

Open the cap settings

Click Manage cap.
TODO: Monthly spend cap dialog with the amount and the two choices
3

Set the amount

Leave Spend cap enabled on and enter the Monthly cap (USD), at least $1.
4

Choose what happens at the cap

  • Keep apps running and email me: apps keep serving past the cap. The bar shows Over cap, still running.
  • Pause my apps: pay-as-you-go apps stop until next month, or until you raise the cap. Apps on a monthly plan keep running unless they run above their plan. Your data is kept.
5

Save

Click Save. The new cap applies at once.
To remove the cap, turn Spend cap enabled off and click Save. Raff keeps the amount and choice for when you turn it on again.

​
When the cap pauses your apps

The bar on Apps shows Paused by cap. Raff stops:
  • Pay-as-you-go apps, and apps on a monthly plan that run above their plan.
  • Cron job and one-off job runs that are in progress.
  • Pull request previews of the paused apps.
While they are paused, resuming, creating, deploying, scaling up and running jobs of pay-as-you-go apps is refused. Raise the cap or turn it off, and Raff starts the apps it paused within seconds. Apps you paused yourself stay paused.

​
Do it from your tools

$RAFF_API_KEY is an API key. The cap is set for the whole account. API: Get spend cap settings, Update spend cap settings, Get Apps usage
Send only the fields you want to change. cap_action is notify_only or pause. While apps are paused by the cap, the refused calls return 412. CLI

​
Next steps

Scale an app and let it sleep

Spend less with apps that sleep when idle.

Pause and resume an app

Stop an app and its billing yourself.
Last modified on October 19, 2026