Settings, cost and limits

Steps limit

A step is one decision plus the tools called for it. An agent that reads mail, thinks, and sends one reply uses about three. The limit exists to stop a confused agent looping forever at your expense; hitting it ends the run as a failure.

Ten suits most agents. Raise it when a run legitimately handles many items - triaging twenty emails needs more steps than triaging two. If an agent keeps hitting the ceiling, that is usually a sign the job is too broad rather than the limit being too low.

Daily token budget

A cap on how many model tokens one agent may use in a day (shown with a dollar estimate). It is per agent - each has its own allowance, and a busy agent cannot exhaust a quiet one's budget. The count resets at midnight UTC.

The check happens before each step, so a run that starts under the cap can finish slightly over it. Treat it as a guardrail against runaway loops, not an exact accounting limit.

Think step by step

Asks the model to reason through each decision before acting. Slower and slightly more expensive, and worth it when the agent has to exercise judgement over ambiguous text. For simple routing it mostly adds cost.

Web search

Gives the agent a search tool. No account or API key is needed. The results setting controls how much comes back on each search:

Read full pages adds a second tool that opens a URL and reads it, for when a snippet is not enough. It is slower and much heavier on tokens, which is why it is separate. Long content is truncated.

It reads data files as well as pages. If a site publishes a CSV, JSON, or XML feed, point the agent at that instead of the page — it is cleaner, more complete, and far less likely to break when the site is redesigned. When the agent does read a page, links are kept alongside their text, so it can follow a list of results through to the individual entries rather than only seeing their titles.

Remember past runs

The agent finishes each run by writing itself a short note — which items it acted on, what it decided to skip — and the next few runs start with those notes in front of them. Because the agent chooses what goes in the note, it can carry forward exactly the identifiers it needs to avoid doing the same work twice.

Notes are kept from the last five successful runs, newest first, up to a fixed size — so an agent that writes a lot pushes out its older notes rather than everything getting squeezed. Useful for agents that should notice a pattern across days or must not repeat themselves; unnecessary for agents where each run stands alone. Costs a small amount on every run.

What things actually cost

• AI tokens — with your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, you pay them directly at their prices. On Setod-managed models, tokens are drawn from the AI credit included in your plan (Pro $15/mo, Business $60/mo); when it runs out you can top up or turn on auto-recharge in Plan & Usage.
• SMS — on your own Twilio account, Twilio bills you per message. On a Setod phone number, each segment sent is metered at US$0.03 and billed as usage on your Setod invoice.
• Voice calls — Twilio charges for the call leg itself; the platform meters voice minutes separately against your plan's included allowance. Minutes over the allowance are billed as overage. Check Plan & Usage for your current usage and limits.
• Gmail, Telegram and web search cost nothing.

The dollar figures shown next to runs are estimates from token counts at typical prices. For your own key, your provider's bill is the real number; for managed models, the balance in Plan & Usage is.

If a payment fails

Your plan keeps working for three days while Stripe retries the card. Any Setod phone number is suspended straight away (inbound still works; outbound and new purchases stop) and comes back as soon as the payment goes through. After three days the workspace drops to the Free limits until the invoice is paid. A red banner on Plan & Usage shows the current state and opens the billing portal.

Notifications

Setod can alert you when something needs your attention. Go to Settings → Notifications to configure this.

• Email is always on. Alerts go to your login email address as a fallback for every event.
• Telegram — connect a Telegram Account connector and select it in the Notifications card. Alerts arrive in your Saved Messages, so they only you see them.

Events that trigger an alert:

• An agent is waiting for your approval before it can act.
• A run fails — sent at most once per hour per agent to avoid noise.
• An agent hits its daily token budget.
• A connector is revoked and its tools have stopped working.
• Your managed AI credit crosses 50% and 80% used, runs low, or runs out.
• A Setod phone number's business profile is approved or rejected, a daily phone limit is hit, or a day's phone spend passes 80% of its cap.

The Send test button on the Notifications card fires a test through every configured channel so you can confirm delivery before anything real happens.