# Setting Up Your First Budget

> Create a spending budget to control what your AI agent can access and how much it can spend.

Content type: documentation
Source URL: https://www.agentpmt.com/docs/monitoring/setting-up-your-first-budget
Markdown URL: https://www.agentpmt.com/docs/monitoring/setting-up-your-first-budget?format=agent-md
Category: Monitoring

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# Setting Up Your First Budget

A budget is how you control your AI agent's access and spending. Every tool call your agent makes is scoped to a budget, so nothing happens without your permission.

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## Create a Budget

1. **Go to the AI Budgets tab**
   From your dashboard, click the **AI Budgets** tab. This is where all your budgets live.

2. **Click Create Budget**
   Give your budget a name (e.g., "Research Agent" or "Content Creation"). Pick something that describes what this agent will do.

3. **Set a spending cap**
   Choose a cap amount and frequency. You can limit spending per-call, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. Start conservative -- you can always increase it later.

4. **Add tools and vendors**
   Browse the marketplace and add the tools your agent needs. You can also whitelist specific vendors. Your agent can only use tools that are in its budget.

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## Get Your Connection Keys

Once your budget is created, you'll see two keys on the budget card:

- **API Key** -- Your user-level key (same across all budgets)
- **Budget Key** -- Unique to this budget, controls which tools the agent can access

You'll need both to connect your AI agent. Copy them and keep them safe.

> WARNING: Keep your keys private
>
> Anyone with your API key and budget key can make tool calls on your behalf, charged against your budget's spending cap.

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## What to Do Next

- [Add Tools](/marketplace) - Browse the marketplace and add tools to your budget
  - [Connect Your Agent](/docs/connecting-your-agent/connecting-your-ai-agent) - Use your keys to connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible agent