With Compute User Limits, you can set 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 month 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 it to:
- 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
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, Delete | View only |
Receive budget notifications | — | 50%, 75%, 95%, and 100% |
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.
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 monthly 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 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
These notifications appear as banners in the New Relic platform to keep users informed of their 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 error messages depending on which feature they're trying to access:
- Query builder: A message stating they've been blocked due to exceeding their budget, with options to view their budget
- Dashboards: A similar message preventing access to dashboard views
- API calls: An error response stating, Your account has exceeded the allowed consumption budget
Monitor only: Continue to notify the user about their budget consumption without blocking access.
Important
Blocks remain in effect until the end of the calendar month (UTC) or until you increase the user's budget. Consumption data updates within a few hours, so blocking doesn't happen exactly at 100%. Users may exceed their budget slightly before the block takes effect.
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 and 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 month or until you change them. You receive a notification when limits take effect.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
The global budget appears as a card at the top of the main User Limits page. Custom override budgets appear in a budget table below.
Organization managers can:
- 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 with options to:
- View: See detailed budget information, consumption, and trends
- Edit: Modify budget settings
- Delete: Remove the budget
Read-only users can:
- Can see only your own budget line item in the table if you have a custom override budget
- Can see only the global budget card at the top if you only have the global budget
- Can access only the View option from the three-dot menu
- Can't see other users' budgets or access Edit or Delete options
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 month
- 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 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 to take effect within approximately 15 minutes for the current and future billing 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 configured).
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 configured).
Handle blocked users
When a user is blocked due to budget consumption, they:
- See a blocking message when trying to access dashboards or the query builder
- View their budget details to check consumption information
- Contact you to request a budget increase
To restore a blocked user's access, you can:
- Increase their budget — see Adjust budgets
- Wait until the end of the month, when budgets reset and access is automatically restored
Conseil
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? Budgets reset at the start of each calendar month based on 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.
Related topics
Getting started with Compute Budgets
Monitor and control your Compute Consumption 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.