How to Stop Your OpenAI API Bill from Spiraling Out of Control

How to Stop Your OpenAI API Bill from Spiraling Out of Control If you're building with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini), you've probably had that moment — you check your dashboard and realize a runaway loop or an uncapped user session just burned through your entire monthly budget in minutes. There's no built-in way to set spending limits across these SDKs. OpenAI's usage limits are post-hoc (money already spent), Anthropic has no budget controls, and Gemini has rate limits but not token budgets. I built llm-spend-guard to fix this. What It Does It wraps your existing LLM SDK calls and enforces token budgets before any request is sent. If a request would exceed your budget, it gets blocked instantly — the API is never called, no money wasted. Your Code --> llm-spend-guard --> LLM API | ├── Estimates tokens BEFORE the request ├── Checks budget (global, per-user, per-session) ├── Over budget? BLOCKS the request └── Under budget? Sends request, tracks usage Quick Start (