---
title: "Team Soft Budget Alerts"
url: "/docs/proxy/ui_team_soft_budget_alerts"
canonical_url: "https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/ui_team_soft_budget_alerts"
type: "docs"
last_updated: "2026-10-08"
summary: "Email budget alerts require an enterprise license."
related:
  - "/docs/proxy/project_management"
  - "/docs/proxy/tag_budgets"
---
# Team Soft Budget Alerts

> Index of all LiteLLM docs: https://docs.litellm.ai/llms.txt


> **LiteLLM Enterprise feature.** Email budget alerts require an enterprise license. Talk to sales: https://www.litellm.ai/enterprise#talk-to-sales

Set a soft budget on a team and get email alerts when spending crosses the threshold, without blocking any requests.

## Overview

A **soft budget** is a spending threshold that triggers email notifications when exceeded, but **does not block requests**. This is different from a hard budget (`max_budget`), which rejects requests once the limit is reached.

Team soft budget alerts let you:

- **Get notified early** — receive email alerts when a team's spend crosses the soft budget threshold
- **Keep requests flowing** — unlike hard budgets, soft budgets never block API calls
- **Target specific recipients** — send alerts to specific email addresses (e.g. team leads, finance), not just the team members
- **Work without global alerting** — team soft budget alerts are sent via email independently of Slack or other global alerting configuration

:::warning[Email integration required]
Team soft budget alerts are sent via email. You must have an active email integration (SendGrid, Resend, or SMTP) configured on your proxy for alerts to be delivered. See [Email Notifications](./email.md) for setup instructions.
:::

:::info[Automatically active]
Team soft budget alerts are **automatically active** once you configure a soft budget and at least one alerting email on a team. No additional proxy configuration or restart is needed; alerts are checked on every request.
:::

## How It Works

On every API request made with a key belonging to a team, the proxy checks:

1. Does the team have a `soft_budget` set?
2. Is the team's current `spend` >= the `soft_budget`?
3. Are there any emails configured in `soft_budget_alerting_emails`?

If all three conditions are met, an email alert is sent to the configured recipients. Alerts are **deduplicated** so the same alert is only sent once within a 24-hour window.

## How to Set Up Team Soft Budget Alerts

### 1. Navigate to the Admin UI

Go to the Admin UI (e.g. `http://localhost:4000/ui` or your `PROXY_BASE_URL/ui`).

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/f06d75ad-25ef-4ee8-90c3-9604f8e46a1c/ascreenshot_1a6defaed1494d6da0001459511ecfd5_text_export.jpeg)

### 2. Go to Teams

Click **Teams** in the sidebar.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/f06d75ad-25ef-4ee8-90c3-9604f8e46a1c/ascreenshot_2d258fa280f6463b966bf7a05bb102d5_text_export.jpeg)

### 3. Select a team

Click on the team you want to configure soft budget alerts for.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/490f09fb-6bf5-45a8-a384-676889f34c88/ascreenshot_15cceb22abe64df0bf7d7c742ecb5b2f_text_export.jpeg)

### 4. Open team Settings

Click the **Settings** tab to view the team's configuration.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/28dd1bc5-7d07-462f-b277-33f885bdc07e/ascreenshot_12f2b762b5d24686801d93ad5b067e06_text_export.jpeg)

### 5. Edit Settings

Click **Edit Settings** to modify the team's budget configuration.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/30a483ea-7e01-4fdc-ac5f-a5572388d138/ascreenshot_0915eadd9e754a798489853b82de3cb5_text_export.jpeg)

### 6. Set the Soft Budget

Click the **Soft Budget (USD)** field and enter your desired threshold. For example, enter `0.01` for testing or a higher value like `500` for production.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/8b306d80-4943-4ad0-a51a-94b5ebdd6680/ascreenshot_5bb6e65c6428473fac2607f6a7f4b98a_text_export.jpeg)

### 7. Add alerting emails

Click the **Soft Budget Alerting Emails** field and enter one or more comma-separated email addresses that should receive the alert.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/a97c6efa-cc93-45d7-979e-d2a533f423b9/ascreenshot_2d8223ce8e934aa1bfadfb2f78aee5fc_text_export.jpeg)

### 8. Save Changes

Click **Save Changes**. The soft budget alert is now active, with no proxy restart required.

![](https://colony-recorder.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2026-02-07/865ba6f1-3fc6-4c19-8e08-433561d6c3f7/ascreenshot_b2f0503ada3a479a83dc8b7d01c1f8da_text_export.jpeg)

### 9. Verify: email alert received

Once the team's spend crosses the soft budget, an email alert is sent to the configured recipients. Below is an example of the alert email:

## Settings Reference

| Setting                         | Description                                                                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Soft Budget (USD)**           | The spending threshold that triggers an email alert. Requests are **not** blocked when this limit is exceeded.                                |
| **Soft Budget Alerting Emails** | Comma-separated email addresses that receive the alert when the soft budget is crossed. At least one email is required for alerts to be sent. |

:::tip[Soft Budget vs. Max Budget]

- **Soft Budget**: Advisory threshold. Sends email alerts but does **not** block requests.
- **Max Budget**: Hard limit. Blocks requests once the budget is exceeded.

You can set both on the same team to get early warnings (soft) and a hard stop (max).
:::

## API Configuration

You can also configure team soft budgets via the API when creating or updating a team:

```bash
curl -X POST 'http://localhost:4000/team/update' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $LITELLM_API_KEY" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "team_id": "your-team-id",
    "soft_budget": 500.00,
    "metadata": {
      "soft_budget_alerting_emails": ["lead@example.com", "finance@example.com"]
    }
  }'
```

## Related Documentation

- [Email Notifications](./email.md) – Configure email integrations (Resend, SMTP) for LiteLLM Proxy
- [Alerting](./alerting.md) – Set up Slack and other alerting channels
- [Cost Tracking](./cost_tracking.md) – Track and manage spend across teams, keys, and users

## Related pages

- [[Beta] Project Management](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/project_management.md)
- [Setting Tag Budgets](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/tag_budgets.md)