With Compute User Limits, you can set daily or monthly budgets for individual users in your organization and manage their access to New Relic resources based on compute consumption. When a user reaches their allocated budget, you can block their access to dashboards, query builder, and API calls until the end of the budget period or until you increase their budget.
It also simplifies budget management at scale with a global user budget that applies to all users, so you don't need to configure a budget for every user individually. For users with specific needs, you can create custom override budgets.
Use Compute User Limits to do the following:
- Control compute costs by limiting per-user consumption
- Monitor user-level compute consumption
- Maintain visibility into usage patterns across your organization
- Manage budgets across a large organization
Key capabilities
Two budget types are available:
Global user budget: Set a default budget that applies to all users in your organization. Configure it as one of the following:
- Percentage of organization budget: Allocate a percentage of your organization-level compute budget (based on your minimum commitments) to each user
- Actual compute value: Specify an exact number of Compute Capacity Units (CCUs) for each user
Custom override budgets: Assign specific budgets to individual users who need higher or lower limits than the global budget.
Budget tracking only applies when you configure a global budget or custom override budgets.
If you've configured a global budget, all users automatically receive that budget. If you've only created custom override budgets without a global budget, users without custom budgets have unrestricted access.
User roles and permissions
The following table summarizes what each role can do.
Capability | Organization managers | Read-only users |
|---|---|---|
Set up global user budgets | ✅ | ❌ |
Create custom override budgets for specific users | ✅ | ❌ |
Edit existing budgets | ✅ | ❌ |
Delete budgets | ✅ | ❌ |
View budget consumption | All users | Own budget only |
Access three-dot menu options | View, Edit, and Delete | View only |
Receive budget notifications | — | 50%, 75%, 95%, and 100% |
How user limits work
User limits track each user's compute consumption. When you assign a budget to a user, all of their compute activity counts toward that budget. When a user has both CCU and CoreCCU, only CCU counts toward budget limits.
For example, if a user has a 1,000 CCU budget, all compute consumption attributed to their user ID or API key counts toward that limit.
When a user reaches their allocated budget, the configured blocking or monitoring rules take effect.
Budget frequency
When you create a budget, you choose whether it resets daily or monthly. The right choice depends on your users' work patterns and how tightly you need to control costs.
The following table compares monthly and daily budgets:
| Behavior | Monthly | Daily |
|---|---|---|
| Resets | Start of each calendar month (UTC) | Start of each calendar day (UTC) |
| Block lifts | Start of next calendar month (UTC) | Start of next calendar day (UTC) |
Choose a monthly budget if any of the following apply:
- Your users have variable day-to-day usage that averages out over a billing period — for example, developers who run intensive queries at the end of a sprint but have light usage otherwise
- You want the budget period to align with your billing cycle
- You want only one reset per month
Choose a daily budget if any of the following apply:
- You want to limit how much a runaway query or script can consume in a single day
- Your users have consistent day-to-day usage and you want a fixed daily limit
- You want a shorter recovery window: A user blocked under a daily budget regains access the next day, rather than waiting until the end of the month
Tip
Daily caps can block users on high-usage days even when their total usage would have stayed within a monthly budget. Review your users' typical usage patterns before applying daily limits broadly.
Budget notifications
You receive in-app banner notifications at the following thresholds:
- 50% of budget consumed: Yellow informational banner
- 75% of budget consumed: Yellow warning banner
- 95% of budget consumed: Red critical banner
- 100% of budget consumed: Informational banner indicating the user is over budget
You also receive email notifications at 75% and 100% of budget consumed.
These notifications keep you informed of your consumption status.
Budget enforcement
As an organization manager, you can choose what happens when a user reaches 100% of their allocated budget:
Block the user: Blocking prevents the user from accessing the following:
- Dashboard access
- Query builder access
- API access via their user ID or API key
When blocked, users see a screen that says they've used their budget for the period and that they can contact an organization manager with any questions.
Monitor only: Only notify the user about their budget consumption without blocking access.
Tip
If you're rolling out budget limits for the first time, start with monitor only. This lets you observe actual usage patterns before enabling blocking, reducing the chance of unexpected access disruptions.
Important
For monthly budgets, blocks remain in effect until the end of the calendar month (UTC). For daily budgets, blocks remain in effect until the end of the calendar day (UTC). In both cases, you can restore access sooner by increasing the user's budget. Consumption data updates within a few hours (typically 2 to 4 hours), so blocking doesn't happen exactly at 100%. Users might exceed their budget slightly before the block takes effect.
Before you begin
When you create any budget, you configure four settings. Reviewing these before you start helps you make the right choices in the setup wizard.
| Setting | Options | What to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Budget type | Global or custom override | Start with a global budget as your baseline. Add custom overrides for users who need different limits. |
| Allocation method | Percentage of organization budget or actual CCU value | Use percentage if you want limits to scale with your organization's commitments. Use an actual value for a fixed CCU limit. |
| Frequency | Monthly or daily | See Budget frequency for guidance on choosing between them. |
| Enforcement | Block or monitor only | Start with monitor only to observe actual usage patterns before enabling blocking. |
Set up a global user budget
If your organization spans multiple New Relic organizations, sign in to each one separately to create and manage user limits for its users.
Access Compute Budgets
- Go to one.newrelic.com > user menu.
- Select Administration > Compute Budgets.
Add a global budget
Click Create a global user budget to create a budget that applies to all users in the organization you're signed in to.
Configure your budget
Choose how to allocate budgets:
- Percentage of organization budget: Allocate a percentage of your organization-level compute budget (based on your minimum commitments) to each user. For example, if your organization has 800,000 core CCUs and you set 1% per user, each user receives 8,000 core CCUs. The total percentage across all users doesn't need to equal 100%. You can set the total below 100% (leaving some budget unallocated) or above 100%. Setting the aggregate above 100% is acceptable.
- Actual value: Specify an exact number of CCUs for each user.
Enter the budget amount.
Under Set the frequency, select how often the budget resets:
- Monthly: Tracks usage across the calendar month and resets at the start of each month (UTC).
- Daily: Tracks usage across each calendar day and resets at the start of each day (UTC).
Click Next.
Review global budget notifications
This page confirms the notification thresholds users receive. No configuration is needed. Click Next to continue.
Configure global budget blocking
Choose how to limit usage when users exceed their CCU budget. Limits start when the budget runs out and last through the end of the budget period (day or month) or until you change them. Select one of the following:
- Block further CCU usage: Users can't access dashboards, query builder, or API calls when they reach their budget limit. When a user exhausts their budget, blocking applies to CCU-consuming actions like running queries or refreshing dashboards.
- Don't limit usage: Users receive notifications but maintain full access to all features. This doesn't prevent overages.
You receive a notification when limits take effect.
Click Finish to create the global user budget.
Set up custom override budgets
Create custom override budgets for users who need different limits than the global budget. Use this approach when onboarding a team or applying a uniform limit to a group without configuring each user individually.
Add a user budget
From the User Limits page, click + Create a user budget.
Select users
From the dropdown menu, select one or more users to assign a custom override budget. When you select multiple users, the same budget amount applies to each user individually. For example, if you set 40,000 CCUs and select five users, each user receives 40,000 CCUs, not a shared portion.
Configure the custom budget
Set a specific percentage or actual value.
Under Set the frequency, select how often the budget resets:
- Monthly: Tracks usage across the calendar month and resets at the start of each month (UTC).
- Daily: Tracks usage across each calendar day and resets at the start of each day (UTC).
Click Next.
Review custom budget notifications
Review the notification thresholds that apply to this user. Click Next to continue.
Configure custom budget blocking
Choose the blocking preference for this specific user, which can differ from the global budget settings.
Click Finish to create the custom override budget.
After you create them, custom override budgets appear in the budget table as separate line items. You can update them individually or use the group view to update all users in the group at once.
Manage user limits
View budget consumption
Organization managers see the global budget as a card at the top of the main User Limits page. Custom override budgets appear in a budget table below.
Organization managers can do the following:
- View the global budget card and all custom override budgets in the table with full details
- Access a three-dot menu (⋯) next to each budget. The menu includes the following options:
- View: See detailed budget information, consumption, and trends
- Edit: Modify budget settings
- Delete: Remove the budget
Read-only users can do the following:
- See their own budget as a line item in the table, whether it's a custom override or global budget
- Access only the View option from the three-dot menu
Read-only users can't see other users' budgets or use Edit or Delete.
Budget details view
When you view a budget (available to all users for their own budget), you can see:
- Current budget consumption
- Percentage of budget used
- Consumption trends for the period
- Blocking status at 100%
- Notification status
Adjust budgets
As an organization manager, you can modify budgets at any time:
- Edit existing budgets: Update budget amounts, frequency, or blocking preferences for a single user, or use the group view to update the budget for all users in a group at once
- Increase a user's budget: Restore access to blocked users or provide additional capacity
- Decrease budgets: Adjust budget amounts for the current and future budget periods
- Delete budgets: Delete both global and custom override budgets. When you delete a custom override budget, the user automatically falls back to the global user budget (if you've configured one).
Changes to budgets take effect within approximately 15 minutes.
Important
Deleting a custom budget doesn't remove budget tracking. Budget tracking continues under the global budget (if you've configured one).
Handle blocked users
When a user is blocked due to budget consumption, they can do the following:
- See a message that says they've used their budget for the period
- View their budget details to check consumption
- Contact you to request a budget increase
To restore a blocked user's access, choose one of the following options:
- Increase their budget. See Adjust budgets.
- Wait until the budget resets at the start of the next budget period. See Budget frequency.
Tip
Publish an internal list of organization managers so users know who to contact for limit increases, and ensure at least one is available to approve increases quickly during a service incident.
Common scenarios
When do budgets reset? It depends on the frequency you selected when setting up the budget:
- Monthly: Budgets reset at the start of each calendar month (UTC).
- Daily: Budgets reset at the start of each calendar day (UTC).
What happens to in-progress queries when a user reaches 100% of their budget? Running queries complete. The block only prevents new queries, dashboard loads, and API calls from starting.
What happens to a user when I delete their custom override budget? The user automatically falls back to the global user budget if you've configured one. If no global budget exists, the user has unrestricted access.
What happens to users who don't have a budget assigned? Users without a budget assigned have unrestricted access to dashboards, query builder, and API calls.
How quickly do budget changes take effect? Budget changes take effect within approximately 15 minutes.
Related topics
Getting started with Compute Budgets
Monitor and control your Compute Capacity Unit (CCU) usage with New Relic's Compute Budgets feature.
Organization level budgets
Manage your organization's Compute Budgets to monitor and control CCU usage.
Account level budgets
Set up custom budgets in New Relic to proactively manage your CCU usage and costs.