Quickstart (hosted)

The hosted service runs the dashboard and admin API at https://app.spendbrake.dev and the proxy at https://proxy.spendbrake.dev. To run your own instead, see Self-hosting.

1. Create an account

Open app.spendbrake.dev/#/signup, enter your work email and a team or project name, and pick a plan. The Free plan needs no card. We email you a sign-in link; open it to sign in. There is no password.

The dashboard opens on Get started, which walks through the next four steps and ticks each one off.

2. Add your provider key

Pick the provider and paste your own key. It is stored encrypted, used only to call the provider for you, and never shown again.

Provider What to paste
Google Maps Platform API key (AIza…)
Mapbox Access token (pk.… or sk.…)
HERE API key
Twilio (SMS, Verify) AccountSid:AuthToken (or ApiKeySid:ApiKeySecret)
Tavily API key (tvly-…)
Exa API key
Brave Search Subscription token
SerpApi API key

For a Google key, Spend Brake asks Google whether the key is restricted. If it is not, the page shows the exact Google Cloud changes: restrict the key to the proxy’s IP addresses and to the Maps APIs you use. Do it. Caps only hold if the proxy is the only way to spend with that key.

3. Create a key for your app

Name the key (for example web app (production)) and tick the providers it can call. The sb_live_… token is shown once: copy it now.

4. Set your caps

Under Caps, set a hard cap per day and/or per month for the org, and optionally a soft limit that only alerts. A new Free account starts with a $50/month hard cap, the most Free protects. The same form caps other scopes too: a single key (key:<id>), a SKU (sku:google-maps:geocoding), an environment, an agent or an agent session.

5. Change two things in your app

Swap the provider’s base URL for the proxy’s, and put the Spend Brake key where the provider’s key went.

Provider Base URL Where the Spend Brake key goes
Google Maps https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-maps key= parameter or X-Goog-Api-Key
Google Places https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-places X-Goog-Api-Key
Google Routes https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-routes X-Goog-Api-Key
Mapbox https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/mapbox access_token parameter
HERE https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/here-geocode (and here-revgeocode, here-discover, here-autosuggest, here-autocomplete, here-router, here-matrix) apiKey parameter or Authorization: Bearer
Twilio https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/twilio, /twilio-verify X-Brake-Key header (leave out your Twilio credentials)
Tavily https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/tavily Authorization: Bearer
Exa https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/exa X-Api-Key
Brave Search https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/brave X-Subscription-Token
SerpApi https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/serpapi api_key parameter

For example:

- https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Sofia&key=AIza…
+ https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-maps/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Sofia&key=sb_live_…

- https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText     X-Goog-Api-Key: AIza…
+ https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-places/v1/places:searchText    X-Goog-Api-Key: sb_live_…

The X-Brake-Key header works for every provider, if you prefer it to the provider’s own key slot.

6. Make a call 

curl -i "https://proxy.spendbrake.dev/google-maps/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Sofia&key=sb_live_…"

Every response carries X-Brake-Request-Id and X-Brake-Cost-Micros (1 USD = 1,000,000 micros). When something is capped, X-Brake-Remaining-Micros says how much headroom is left. The Get started page ticks off the last step when the first call succeeds; Spend and Events show it.

When a call would cross a cap, the proxy answers 402 budget_exceeded and the provider never sees the request. See How it works for every status the proxy can return.

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