This is an important change after the introduction of Genie Code billing. Previously, administrators could configure budgets and notifications, but exceeding a threshold did not necessarily stop further usage.
With the new Block usage option, you can now configure:
- shared Genie budgets
- per-user spending limits
- user and group overrides
- email notifications
- automatic usage blocking after a threshold is reached
For larger Databricks environments, I would consider this a basic FinOps control. If hundreds of users have access to Genie, monitoring costs is not enough โ there should also be a hard limit.
I tested the new functionality, including what happens when the limit is reached, how to track Genie consumption through system.billing.usage, and whether budgets can be managed through the Databricks CLI.
One limitation I found: budget export works through the CLI, but a Genie budget with Block Usage currently cannot be fully round-tripped/imported because of the AI Gateway resource type.
Full walkthrough, SQL and test results: https://medium.com/databrickscommunity/databricks-genie-cost-control-how-to-set-budgets-and-block-us...
