How do I rate limit AI agent tool calls?

Rate limiting AI agent tool calls prevents runaway agents from overwhelming your APIs, exhausting cloud budgets, or executing thousands of operations in a loop — and it must be enforced at the execution layer, not the LLM inference layer.

Why standard API rate limiting isn't enough for agents:

• Agents retry aggressively: When an API call fails, agents typically retry immediately — standard rate limits create retry storms
• Context window doesn't count: Agents don't track how many calls they've made — they keep calling until the task is "done"
• Multi-tool amplification: An agent might call 5 different tools in a loop, each with its own rate limit — total calls compound quickly
• Cost spiral: Uncontrolled tool calls translate directly to cloud compute costs — agents have no concept of budget

Exogram's Gate 2 (Quota Enforcement) provides tier-based rate limiting at the governance layer:

• Free tier: 500 evaluations/month (strict cap)
• Pro tier: 50K evaluations/month with $125 hard ceiling on overages
• Developer tier: Pay-per-call at $2.50/1K with configurable limits
• Loop detection: 4 identical failures trigger LOOP_KILL — circuit broken automatically