---
title: "Spend controls"
description: "Cap the price you'll pay per million tokens with per-request headers."
source: https://docs.usepod.ai/using/spend-controls/
---
You can bound the price you're willing to pay on a per-request basis with two
optional headers. If no provider (marketplace, key relay, or centralized) can serve
the request at or below your ceiling, the request is rejected rather than billed
at a higher price.

## Price-ceiling headers

| Header | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `X-Pod-Max-Price-Input` | Max price per **million input tokens**, in USDC microunits |
| `X-Pod-Max-Price-Output` | Max price per **million output tokens**, in USDC microunits |

Prices are expressed in **USDC microunits** (1 USDC = 1,000,000 microunits).

```bash title="Cap at $0.40/M input and $0.60/M output"
curl https://api.usepod.ai/proxy/<token>/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Pod-Max-Price-Input: 400000" \
  -H "X-Pod-Max-Price-Output: 600000" \
  -d '{"model":"gpt-5.5","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}'
```

## How ceilings interact with routing

- A candidate is eligible only if **both** its input and output prices are at or
  below your ceilings.
- Marketplace and key relay prices are already capped at the cheapest centralized
  price for the model, so your ceiling filters within that capped set.
- In `auto` routing, a too-expensive marketplace listing simply falls through to
  a cheaper option (or to centralized). In marketplace-only routing, it returns a
  no-provider-at-price result instead of overcharging.

See [Routing & matching](/marketplace/routing/) for the full selection order.