README

Track costs • Set budgets • Never get surprised by the bill.

Laravel AI Guard is a powerful AI cost optimization package built for the Laravel AI SDK (12.x) 🚀. It helps Laravel developers track OpenAI & LLM token usage 📊, estimate AI costs before execution ⚠️, enforce per-user or per-tenant AI budgets 🧾, and prevent unexpected AI billing spikes 💥 in production.

Designed for Laravel SaaS applications, APIs, and AI-powered platforms, Laravel AI Guard acts as a financial firewall 🛡️ between your app and AI providers—keeping AI usage safe, predictable, and cost-efficient 💸.

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📑 Quick Navigation

Jump to	Jump to
What's Inside	How It Works
Quick Start	Usage Examples
Configuration	Package Structure

✨ What's Inside

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                                                  │
│   ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐           │
│   │   TRACK     │  │   BUDGET    │  │  ESTIMATE   │  │   BLOCK     │           │
│   │  Every call │  │ Per user/   │  │ Before you  │  │ Over-spend  │           │
│   │  in DB      │  │ tenant/app  │  │ call (free) │  │ requests    │           │
│   └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘           │
│                                                                                  │
│                        ┌─────────────────────────┐                              │
│                        │   🚨 KILL SWITCH        │                              │
│                        │   Disable all AI        │                              │
│                        │   in one config change  │                              │
│                        └─────────────────────────┘                              │
│                                                                                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Works with: Laravel AI SDK (12.x) • OpenAI • Anthropic • Any AI API

🔄 How It Works

Request Flow (Before → During → After)

flowchart TD
    subgraph BEFORE["🛡️ BEFORE"]
        A[Request arrives] --> B{Budget OK?}
        B -->|Yes| C[Optional: Estimate cost]
        B -->|No| D[❌ Block - 402]
        C --> E[Continue]
    end

    subgraph DURING["⚡ DURING"]
        E --> F[Your app calls AI]
        F --> G[Laravel AI SDK or any API]
    end

    subgraph AFTER["📊 AFTER"]
        G --> H[Record tokens, cost, user]
        H --> I[Save to ai_usages]
        I --> J[Update ai_budgets]
    end

    BEFORE --> DURING --> AFTER

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Budget Hierarchy (Checked in Order)

flowchart LR
    subgraph layers["Budget layers checked top to bottom"]
        direction TB
        A["🌍 GLOBAL<br/>Whole app limit"]
        B["🏢 TENANT<br/>Org/team limit"]
        C["👤 USER<br/>Per-user limit"]
    end

    A --> B --> C

    C --> D{All OK?}
    D -->|Yes ✓| E[Allow request]
    D -->|Any exceeded ✗| F[Block - 402]

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TL;DR: Laravel AI SDK does the AI. Laravel AI Guard decides whether you're allowed to call and how much you spent. They work together.

🤔 Why Should I Care?

     WITHOUT AI GUARD                    WITH AI GUARD
┌─────────────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────────────┐
│  💸 Surprise bill       │      │  📊 Full visibility     │
│  🐛 Runaway loop?       │  →   │  🛑 Budget limits       │
│  😰 Invoice shock       │      │  😌 Predictable costs   │
└─────────────────────────┘      └─────────────────────────┘

AI APIs charge by the token. One heavy user, one bug—and your bill spikes. Most apps don't track until the invoice arrives. AI Guard gives you visibility, limits, and control.

📐 Under the Hood

Cost Calculation

flowchart LR
    subgraph inputs["Usage Inputs"]
        A[Input Tokens]
        B[Output Tokens]
        C[Cache Hits/Writes]
        D[Images/Audio/Video]
    end

    subgraph calculation["Calculation"]
        E["Text Cost<br/>(Standard + Long Context)"]
        F["Cache Cost<br/>(Read + Write)"]
        G["Multimodal Cost<br/>(Pixel/Second/Token)"]
    end

    subgraph result["Total"]
        H["Total Cost $"]
    end

    A --> E
    B --> E
    C --> F
    D --> G

    E --> H
    F --> H
    G --> H

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Example: 500 input + 200 output tokens (gpt-4o: $0.0025/1k in, $0.01/1k out)

Step	Calculation	Result
Input cost	(500 ÷ 1000) × 0.0025	$0.00125
Output cost	(200 ÷ 1000) × 0.01	$0.00200
Total		$0.00325

Cost Optimization (Context Caching) ⚡

Laravel AI Guard supports advanced pricing models including Context Caching (Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI) to help you track savings accuracy.

Supported Pricing Dimensions:

• Input Tokens (Standard)
• Output Tokens (Standard)
• Cached Input Tokens (Read from cache — typically ~50-90% cheaper)
• Cache Creation Tokens (Write to cache — sometimes higher cost)
• Long context (e.g. >200k tokens — premium input_long / output_long rates)
• Modality-specific: image tokens, audio tokens, per image, per second video, per minute transcription, TTS per 1M characters, web search per 1k calls, embeddings per 1k tokens

Configuration Example (config/ai-guard.php):

'claude-3-5-sonnet' => [
    'input' => 0.003,
    'output' => 0.015,
    'cache_write' => 0.00375, // +25% overhead
    'cached_input' => 0.0003, // -90% savings
],

The package automatically detects cache usage from provider responses and applies the correct lower rate.

Supported Providers, Models & Cost Coverage 📐

Pricing is aligned with official 2026 API docs for maximum accurate cost calculation across Chat, Assistants, Agents, and modality-specific use cases.

Provider	Pricing Source	Coverage
OpenAI	Pricing	GPT-5.x, GPT-4o, o1, Realtime (Audio/Text), DALL·E 3, Whisper, TTS, Web Search
Google Gemini	Pricing	Gemini 3 Pro/Flash, 2.5 Pro/Flash, 1.5, Imagen 3, Veo (Video), Embeddings
Anthropic	Pricing	Claude 4.5, 3.5 Sonnet, 3 Opus, Haiku, Prompt Caching, Long Context
xAI Grok	Models	Grok 4, Grok 3, Grok Beta, Web Search Tool
Mistral AI	Pricing	Mistral Large 2, Small, Codestral, Embeddings
DeepSeek	Pricing	DeepSeek-V3, R1 (Reasoner), Cache Hit/Miss pricing

Full Multimodal Cost Support:

• LLM / Chat: Input, Output, Cached Input, Cache Write, Long-Context pricing
• Agents: Web Search (per 1k calls), Code Interpreter (Session based)
• Audio:
  • Input: Audio tokens (e.g. Gemini 2.5 Flash audio_in, GPT-4o audio_in)
  • Output: Audio tokens (e.g. GPT-4o audio_out)
  • Transcription: Per minute (Whisper)
  • TTS: Per 1M characters (OpenAI TTS)
• Video:
  • Input: Video tokens (e.g. Gemini video_in)
  • Generation: Per second (Veo per_second_video)
• Image:
  • Input: Image tokens (e.g. GPT-4o image_in)
  • Generation: Per image (DALL·E 3, Imagen)
• Embeddings: Per 1k tokens

Pass extended usage when recording to get accurate totals:

AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'gemini',
    'model' => 'gemini-2.5-flash',
    'input_tokens' => 1000,
    'output_tokens' => 200,
    'usage' => [
        'input_tokens' => 1000,           // Text tokens
        'output_tokens' => 200,           // Text output
        'video_tokens_in' => 5000,        // Video understanding tokens
        'audio_tokens_in' => 2000,        // Audio input tokens
        'images_generated' => 1,          // Image gen quantity
        'web_search_calls' => 2,          // Per-call tool usage
    ],
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
]);

Estimation (No API Call = No Cost)

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  AIGuard::estimate($prompt)                               │
│                                                           │
│  Input tokens  ≈  characters ÷ 4    (configurable)       │
│  Output tokens ≈  input × 0.5       (configurable)       │
│                                                           │
│  "Write a short poem" (18 chars) → ~5 in, ~3 out → 8     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Kill Switch

Method	How
.env (recommended)	AI_GUARD_DISABLED=true
Config	'ai_disabled' => true

Result: Middleware returns 503 Service Unavailable — no AI calls get through.

💡 5 Ways to Reduce AI Costs

    ① ESTIMATE         ② BUDGET          ③ TRACK           ④ KILL SWITCH      ⑤ TAG
┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐
│ Show cost   │   │ Set limits   │   │ Run report  │   │ Emergency   │   │ Break down  │
│ before call │   │ per user/    │   │ to see      │   │ stop all    │   │ by feature  │
│             │   │ tenant       │   │ where $ goes│   │ AI if needed│   │ (chat, etc) │
└─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘   └─────────────┘

📋 Requirements

Requirement	Version
PHP	8.1+
Laravel	10.x, 11.x, or 12.x
Laravel AI SDK	Optional (for agents/streaming)

🚀 Quick Start (3 Steps)

flowchart LR
    subgraph step1["Step 1"]
        A[composer require]
    end

    subgraph step2["Step 2"]
        B[publish config<br/>& migrations]
    end

    subgraph step3["Step 3"]
        C[migrate]
    end

    A --> B --> C

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1. Install

composer require subhashladumor1/laravel-ai-guard

2. Publish & migrate

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ai-guard-config
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ai-guard-migrations
php artisan migrate

3. Optional — translations

php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ai-guard-lang

creates: ai_usages (tracks every request & cost) + ai_budgets (stores current usage vs limit)

⚙️ Configuration

Edit config/ai-guard.php after publishing:

Setting	Purpose
ai_disabled	Turn off all AI
pricing	Cost per 1k tokens per model
default_model	Fallback (e.g. gpt-4o)
default_provider	Fallback (e.g. openai)
budgets	Limits (global, user, tenant); period
estimation	Chars per token, output multiplier

Example .env:

AI_GUARD_DISABLED=false
AI_GUARD_GLOBAL_LIMIT=100
AI_GUARD_USER_LIMIT=10
AI_GUARD_TENANT_LIMIT=50

📖 Usage Examples

With Laravel AI SDK (12.x)

sequenceDiagram
    participant App
    participant AIGuard
    participant AI

    App->>AIGuard: checkAllBudgets()
    App->>AIGuard: estimate(prompt)
    App->>AI: prompt()
    AI-->>App: response
    App->>AIGuard: recordFromResponse()

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// 1. Before — check budget
AIGuard::checkAllBudgets(auth()->id(), $tenantId);
$estimate = AIGuard::estimate($userPrompt);

// 2. Call AI (as normal)
$response = (new YourAgent)->prompt($userPrompt);

// 3. After — record usage
AIGuard::recordFromResponse($response, userId: auth()->id(), tenantId: $tenantId, tag: 'chat');

Multi-model: Pass model and provider so estimate and budgets use the right cost:

$estimate = AIGuard::estimate($userPrompt, model: 'gpt-4o-mini', provider: 'openai');
AIGuard::recordFromResponse($response, userId: auth()->id(), provider: 'openai', model: 'gpt-4o-mini');

Streaming: record in ->then() callback when stream finishes.

With Any Other AI API

// Before — same
AIGuard::checkAllBudgets(auth()->id(), $tenantId);

// After — record manually
AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'openai',
    'model' => 'gpt-4o',
    'input_tokens' => 400,
    'output_tokens' => 250,
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
    'tenant_id' => $tenantId,
    'tag' => 'chat',
]);

Extended usage (audio, video, image, tools) — pass a usage array for accurate cost when using modalities or tools:

AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'openai',
    'model' => 'gpt-4o',
    'input_tokens' => 500,
    'output_tokens' => 300,
    'usage' => [
        'input_tokens' => 500,
        'output_tokens' => 300,
        'cached_input_tokens' => 0,
        'images_generated' => 2,           // DALL·E / image models
        'web_search_calls' => 5,           // agent tool calls
        'transcription_minutes' => 1.5,    // Whisper / transcribe
        'tts_characters' => 2500,         // TTS
        'embedding_tokens' => 1000,        // embeddings
        'video_seconds' => 10,             // Veo / video gen
    ],
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
    'tag' => 'agent-with-search',
]);

Multi-model and dynamic cost (no config change)

Cost is resolved in order: per-call override → runtime pricing → config. So you can support many models and change costs at runtime without editing config/ai-guard.php.

1. Per-call pricing override — pass pricing for a single estimate or record:

// Estimate with custom cost per 1k tokens (no config entry needed)
$estimate = AIGuard::estimate($userPrompt, 'my-model', 'my-provider', [
    'input' => 0.001,
    'output' => 0.002,
]);

// Record with custom pricing when cost isn't pre-calculated
AIGuard::recordFromResponse($response, auth()->id(), $tenantId, 'openai', 'gpt-4o', 'chat', [
    'input' => 0.0025,
    'output' => 0.01,
]);

// record() can omit 'cost' and use 'pricing' to calculate
AIGuard::record([
    'provider' => 'openai',
    'model' => 'gpt-4o',
    'input_tokens' => 400,
    'output_tokens' => 250,
    'pricing' => ['input' => 0.0025, 'output' => 0.01],
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
]);

2. Runtime pricing registry — register models once (e.g. in a service provider or from DB); then estimate() and recording use them automatically:

$calc = AIGuard::getCostCalculator();

// Single model
$calc->setPricing('openai', 'gpt-4o-mini', ['input' => 0.00015, 'output' => 0.0006]);

// Many models at once
$calc->setPricingMap([
    'openai' => [
        'gpt-4o' => ['input' => 0.0025, 'output' => 0.01],
        'gpt-4o-mini' => ['input' => 0.00015, 'output' => 0.0006],
    ],
    'anthropic' => [
        'claude-3-5-sonnet' => ['input' => 0.003, 'output' => 0.015],
    ],
]);

// Now estimate/record use these models without config
$estimate = AIGuard::estimate($userPrompt, 'gpt-4o-mini', 'openai');
AIGuard::checkAllBudgets(auth()->id(), $tenantId);

Add, update or remove models at runtime:

$calc = AIGuard::getCostCalculator();

// Add or update a model
$calc->setPricing('openai', 'gpt-4o', ['input' => 0.0025, 'output' => 0.01]);

// Remove a model from runtime (falls back to config, or 0 if not in config)
$calc->removePricing('openai', 'gpt-4o');

// Clear all runtime pricing
$calc->clearRuntimePricing();

Config file — publish and edit config/ai-guard.php to add, remove or update models permanently:

'pricing' => [
    'openai' => [
        'gpt-4o' => ['input' => 0.0025, 'output' => 0.01],
        'gpt-4o-mini' => ['input' => 0.00015, 'output' => 0.0006],
        // Add new models here
    ],
    // Add new providers here
],

Budget checks use the same cost you record (per user/tenant), so multi-model costs and budgets work together.

Middleware

Route::post('/chat', ChatController::class)->middleware('ai.guard');

Condition	Response
Over budget	402 + JSON
AI disabled	503

Artisan Commands

Command	Purpose
php artisan ai-guard:report	Usage & cost report
php artisan ai-guard:report --period=month	Monthly report
php artisan ai-guard:report --days=7	Last 7 days
php artisan ai-guard:reset-budgets	Reset when period ends
php artisan ai-guard:reset-budgets --dry-run	Preview only

Schedule reset: $schedule->command('ai-guard:reset-budgets')->daily();

🗂️ Package Structure

flowchart TB
    subgraph entry["Entry Points"]
        F[AIGuard Facade]
        M[EnforceAIBudget Middleware]
        C1[ai-guard:report]
        C2[ai-guard:reset-budgets]
    end

    subgraph core["Core"]
        GM[GuardManager]
    end

    subgraph services["Services"]
        BR[BudgetResolver]
        BE[BudgetEnforcer]
        TE[TokenEstimator]
        CC[CostCalculator]
    end

    subgraph storage["Storage"]
        AU[AiUsage]
        AB[AiBudget]
    end

    F --> GM
    M --> GM
    C1 --> GM
    C2 --> GM
    GM --> BR
    GM --> BE
    GM --> TE
    GM --> CC
    BR --> AB
    BE --> AB
    CC --> AU

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laravel-ai-guard/
├── src/
│   ├── GuardManager.php          # Core logic
│   ├── Facades/AIGuard.php
│   ├── Budget/                   # BudgetResolver, BudgetEnforcer
│   ├── Cost/                     # TokenEstimator, CostCalculator
│   ├── Models/                   # AiUsage, AiBudget
│   ├── Middleware/
│   ├── Commands/
│   └── Exceptions/
├── database/migrations/
├── lang/                         # 11 locales
└── tests/

🌍 Real-World Scenarios

1. The "Safe" Chatbot 🤖 (OpenAI + Laravel AI SDK)

Goal: Build a chatbot that users can't abuse to run up a huge bill. Safety Check: Estimate cost before the request.

use Subhashladumor1\LaravelAiGuard\Facades\AIGuard;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

public function chat(Request $request) 
{
    $user = auth()->user();
    $prompt = $request->input('message');

    // 1️⃣ Run budget check (throws overflow exception if user is over limit)
    AIGuard::checkAllBudgets($user->id, $user->team_id);

    // 2️⃣ Estimate cost (OpenAI/Text is roughly 4 chars/token)
    // If the prompt is huge (e.g. paste-bin attack), stop it here.
    $estimatedCost = AIGuard::estimate($prompt, 'gpt-4o', 'openai');
    
    if ($estimatedCost > 0.50) {
        return response()->json(['error' => 'Message too long/expensive.'], 400);
    }
    
    // 3️⃣ Call AI (Laravel AI SDK simple example)
    $response = \AI::chat($prompt);

    // 4️⃣ Record actual usage
    // Tracks input, output, and updates User + Tenant budgets
    AIGuard::recordFromResponse($response, $user->id, $user->team_id, 'openai', 'gpt-4o', 'chatbot');
    
    return response()->json(['reply' => $response]);
}

2. Video Analysis Agent 🎥 (Gemini 2.5) — Multimodal

Goal: Analyze uploaded videos. Video processing is expensive per second. Method: Use specific keys for video_seconds or video_tokens.

// User uploads a 30-second video clip
$videoPath = $request->file('video')->store('videos');

// Call Gemini API (Direct HTTP / Google Client - No Laravel SDK)
$geminiResponse = Http::post('https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/...', [
    // ... payload with video data ...
]);

$result = $geminiResponse->json();

// 💡 Record complex usage:
AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'gemini',
    'model' => 'gemini-2.5-flash',
    'input_tokens' => 500,        // Prompt text
    'output_tokens' => 200,       // Analysis text
    'usage' => [
        'input_tokens' => 500,
        'video_tokens_in' => 7500, // Video tokens (approx 250/sec)
        // OR use direct billing unit if supported: 'video_seconds' => 30
    ],
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
    'tag' => 'video-analysis'
]);

3. Long Document Summarizer 📄 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet + Caching)

Goal: Summarize a 100-page PDF. Reuse the PDF context for follow-up questions to save 90% cost. Method: Track cached_input_tokens.

// 1st Call: Upload & Cache
// Anthropic returns 'cache_creation_input_tokens' (write cost)
AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'anthropic',
    'model' => 'claude-3-5-sonnet',
    'input_tokens' => 50000,
    'usage' => [
        'input_tokens' => 50000,
        'cache_write_tokens' => 50000, // Expensive write
    ],
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
]);

// 2nd Call: Ask question about PDF
// Anthropic returns 'cache_read_input_tokens' (Cheap read! ~10% cost)
AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
    'provider' => 'anthropic',
    'model' => 'claude-3-5-sonnet',
    'input_tokens' => 50100, // 50k context + 100 new prompt
    'usage' => [
        'input_tokens' => 50100,
        'cached_input_tokens' => 50000, // Cheap HIT!
        'output_tokens' => 500,
    ],
    // AIGuard automatically calculates the lower bill for cached tokens
    'user_id' => auth()->id(),
]);

4. Background Data Processing ⚙️ (DeepSeek / Mistral + Batch)

Goal: Process 10,000 rows of data nightly. Optimisation: Use a cheaper model (DeepSeek V3 / Mistral Small).

foreach ($rows as $row) {
    // Check global budget first to prevent runaway loops
    try {
        AIGuard::checkAllBudgets(null, $tenant->id); 
    } catch (\Exception $e) {
        Log::alert("Budget exceeded during batch! Stopping.");
        break;
    }

    // Call DeepSeek API directly
    $response = Http::withToken($key)->post('https://api.deepseek.com/chat/completions', [
        'model' => 'deepseek-chat',
        'messages' => [['role' => 'user', 'content' => "Analyze: " . $row->text]]
    ]);

    // Track it
    AIGuard::recordAndApplyBudget([
        'provider' => 'deepseek',
        'model' => 'deepseek-chat', 
        'input_tokens' => $response['usage']['prompt_tokens'],
        'output_tokens' => $response['usage']['completion_tokens'],
        'usage' => [
            'cached_input_tokens' => $response['usage']['prompt_cache_hit_tokens'] ?? 0, 
        ],
        'tenant_id' => $tenant->id,
        'tag' => 'nightly-batch'
    ]);
}

🌍 Multi-Language

11 locales: en, ar, es, fr, de, zh, hi, bn, pt, ru, ja

App locale used automatically. Customize: php artisan vendor:publish --tag=ai-guard-lang

🏢 Multi-Tenant (SaaS)

• Store tenant_id on each usage
• Set tenant budgets in config
• Middleware reads tenant from X-Tenant-ID header or request attribute

🚧 Beta Notice: Laravel AI Guard is currently in beta. Please report any issues with cost calculation, token estimation, or edge cases by opening a GitHub issue. Community feedback is highly appreciated.

🧪 Testing

composer install && php artisan test

📄 License

MIT. See LICENSE.