---
title: It stopped before it finished
description: Four different things stop a run and they look alike from the outside. How to tell a cost ceiling from a clock, a step count and a question — and what to do about each.
---

In most cases nothing is broken and **asking it to continue is the right move** — it picks
up from what is already done rather than starting over. What you should not do is retype
the whole request, which pays for the finished part twice.

But "continue" only works if the run stopped on a ceiling. If it stopped to ask you
something, it is waiting, not finished. Here is how to tell them apart.

## 1. It hit the per-turn cost ceiling

**How it looks:** the run ends mid-work with a note saying it reached its spending limit
for a single turn, that you were only charged for work that actually ran, and that you can
ask it to continue.

**What it actually is:** a fixed ceiling of **$0.50 per turn** that you cannot see or
change. It is *not* the spend limit you typed above the composer — in a chat that number is
not applied at all, which is why a run can end at a figure with no relationship to it. The
full story is on [Spending limits](/docs/spending-limits); it is the single most misread thing
in the product.

**What to do:** ask it to continue. Each new turn starts the count again, so a job that
needs more than one turn's worth of work simply takes more than one turn. If it keeps
happening on the same job, the job is too big for a chat — hand it off as a task, where the
limit you set is genuinely read.

## 2. It ran out of time or steps

**How it looks:** the same shape of ending, but early in a job that was not expensive.

**What it actually is:** a turn also stops at **five minutes** of wall-clock time, at a
**twenty-step** cap on tool calls and file writes, and at a size ceiling on how much text
one turn may move through — whichever comes first. A step already running is allowed to
finish, so one slow step can carry a turn past the five-minute mark. Separately, a stream
that goes quiet for two minutes is cut rather than left hanging.

**What to do:** continue. If the same job keeps hitting the step cap, split it — "do part
one" then "now part two" gets further than one instruction that needs thirty steps.

## 3. It stopped to ask you

**How it looks:** it is not finished and it is not ended — there is a question, or an
approval waiting on a specific action it is about to take.

**What it actually is:** the deliberate checkpoint. Approval arrives at the moment it is
about to act, not up front, so it describes the actual email rather than the idea of email.
Sending or publishing always stops for you, whatever you have set.

**What to do:** answer it. It waits indefinitely and **charges nothing while it waits**. If
it asks too often — or not often enough — the setting is covered in
[When it checks with you](/docs/when-it-checks-with-you). If it is asking for something you did
not give it, it may be an app you never added to the run:
[A connected app isn't being used](/docs/troubleshooting/app-connected-but-unused).

## 4. A handed-off task went to Needs you or paused

**How it looks:** the task list shows **Needs you** or **paused** rather than a finished
result.

**What it actually is:** two different things. **Needs you** means its own spend limit was
found exceeded between steps, or it has a question — it is waiting on you and costing
nothing. **Paused with a message** means the connection stalled and automatic retries did
not recover it; the work is intact.

**What to do:** for **Needs you**, decide whether to raise the limit or take what it has.
For **paused**, press **Resume**. Both are on the task's result page.
[When it takes too long](/docs/when-it-takes-too-long) covers the stalled shape in full.

## Whatever it was, you were charged for what ran

Billing happens step by step, so anything that finished is already paid for and a turn that
consumed nothing costs nothing. There is no refund for a run cut short — see
[When a run fails](/docs/when-a-run-fails). The receipt is accurate about what you were charged
even where a limit was not honoured.