Installation

Requirements

• WordPress 7.0 or newer (Governance enforces budgets on the native AI Client that ships with 7.0).
• The free AI Spend Monitor plugin — Governance’s required data layer.
• An AI provider configured under Settings → Connectors (your site’s normal WordPress AI setup).
• Your AI Spend Governance license key from your axtolab.com account.

Install order: Monitor first

AI Spend Governance declares the free AI Spend Monitor as a required plugin. WordPress enforces this: Governance will not activate until the Monitor is installed and active, and shows a message naming the missing plugin. If you see that message, it’s working as intended — install the Monitor and activate Governance again.

Both zips are included in your purchase download. (Once the Monitor is live on the WordPress.org directory, WordPress will offer a one-click install of it from the activation screen instead.)

Steps

1. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin → upload the AI Spend Monitor zip → Activate.
2. Upload the Axtolab AI Spend Governance zip → Activate.
3. Go to Axtolab → AI Spend Governance, paste your license key, and save. Budget enforcement is enabled only while the license is active.
4. Confirm the dashboard at Axtolab → AI Spend Monitor starts showing calls the next time any plugin uses AI.

Next: Getting started covers setting your first budgets, alert thresholds, the hard stop, and the kill switch.

Updates

Updates are delivered through the normal WordPress updates screen. Governance checks Axtolab’s update service using your license key, so keep the license active to receive new versions. The Monitor updates separately (via WordPress.org once listed).

Removing the plugins

Deactivating Governance stops enforcement immediately; the Monitor keeps recording and your dashboard and history remain. Uninstalling removes each plugin’s own settings — the Monitor’s uninstall also removes the recorded usage data, so export a CSV first if you need the history.