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Google Ads daily spend cap: pause campaigns at your limit

A Google Ads daily spend cap is the most an account should spend in a day. SpendCanary pauses its campaigns when the day's spend reaches it, and switches the same campaigns back on the next day.

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How the cap works

  • You set one cap per account, in its own currency, and approve the pauses once.
  • SpendCanary reads the day's cost every hour.
  • At the cap, it pauses the campaigns that are running and emails you.
  • After midnight in the account's time zone, it switches those same campaigns back on. Campaigns that were already paused before the cap stay paused.

Google refreshes cost data about once an hour, so a day can end a little over the cap. It limits overspend, but it can't promise a hard stop. SpendCanary works with Google Ads; it isn't made by Google.

What Google Ads does on its own

  • A daily budget is an average. For most campaigns Google can spend up to twice it on one day, and bills no more than 30.4 times it in a month. If costs go past those limits, Google covers the difference.
  • A campaign total budget is never charged more than its total, but only new campaigns can use one, for 3 to 90 days.
  • Account budgets are for advertisers who pay by monthly invoice. When one runs out, every ad in the account stops.
  • Automated rules can pause campaigns, for example once a campaign has spent $200 this month. Google says a rule can run up to 2 hours after it's due, and switching campaigns back on takes a second rule.

The cap adds a daily limit in your own money, checked every hour, that undoes itself the next day.

A worked example

This is an example, not a real account.

  • Say two campaigns each have a $40 daily budget. On a busy day Google may spend up to $160 between them.
  • You set a $100 cap. By the 2 pm check, the day's cost is $104, so both campaigns are paused.
  • Clicks Google hadn't counted yet arrive later, so the day ends at $109: $9 over the cap, but $51 under Google's limit.
  • In the first hour after midnight, both campaigns switch back on.

To see what your own budget allows, try the daily budget overspend calculator, or read why Google Ads spent more than your daily budget. Want a warning without pauses? Spend alerts are free for one account.

Common questions

Which accounts can use the cap?
Any account you connect with Sign in with Google, up to 3 on the Fix plan. Each account has its own cap in its own currency.
Can the cap stop spending at exactly my limit?
No. Checks are hourly and cost data can lag about an hour, so a day can end a little over the cap.
What happens if I remove the cap while campaigns are paused?
SpendCanary switches the campaigns it paused back on straight away, usually within seconds.
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