Client-owned keys by default
You keep control of business systems and high-variance tools such as Ahrefs, Bright Data, voice APIs, enrichment, messaging, and SEO tools.
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AI Team keeps base pricing attractive by making high-variance third-party usage explicit, approved, capped, and auditable before it starts.
You keep control of business systems and high-variance tools such as Ahrefs, Bright Data, voice APIs, enrichment, messaging, and SEO tools.
AI Team manages routine model usage only when budgets, fallbacks, allowlists, spend tracking, and audit records are in place.
Paid external usage does not begin until provider type, billing method, spend cap, warning threshold, and stop rule are accepted.
If an Agent approaches a spend cap, missing-access state, vendor failure, or policy conflict, it must pause or escalate rather than continue uncontrolled.
Provider categories
The same Agent can be cheap or expensive depending on the providers it touches. Ownership is defined before usage starts.
Cost controls
The approval record must be specific enough for an Agent to warn, throttle, pause, or escalate instead of creating unbounded spend.
Related decisions
A provider decision can change the Agent price band, approval policy, QA scope, and incident response path.
FAQ
These answers show when you keep the account, when AI Team manages usage, and how paid provider costs are capped.
Client-owned accounts are the default for client systems and high-variance providers. AI Team-managed keys are appropriate for standard model and operating usage when usage is metered, capped, and auditable.
Usage can vary too much by provider, volume, geography, media type, and workflow. Separating pass-through costs keeps the base subscription attractive while protecting AI Team margins and client budgets.
The Agent should warn, throttle, pause, or escalate according to the approved stop rule. It should not continue uncontrolled paid usage.
Yes, but provider changes require access review, cost-policy confirmation, QA, and possible re-scoping if the workflow behavior or operating risk changes.