diff --git a/src/cli/commands/deploy/actions.ts b/src/cli/commands/deploy/actions.ts
index b3e349f69..168fc34a0 100644
--- a/src/cli/commands/deploy/actions.ts
+++ b/src/cli/commands/deploy/actions.ts
@@ -768,6 +768,19 @@ export async function handleDeploy(options: ValidatedDeployOptions): Promise<Dep
 
     const postDeployWarnings: string[] = [];
 
+    // Auto-payment is a money-movement default; surface its posture per manager
+    // so an unattended-spend configuration is never silent at deploy time.
+    for (const manager of context.projectSpec.payments ?? []) {
+      if (manager.autoPayment !== false) {
+        const limit = manager.defaultSpendLimit ?? '10.00';
+        postDeployWarnings.push(
+          `Payment manager "${manager.name}": auto-payment is ENABLED — the agent will settle ` +
+            `402 responses automatically up to the per-session spend limit ($${limit}) with no ` +
+            `human approval. Set --auto-payment false on the manager to require manual approval.`
+        );
+      }
+    }
+
     // Post-deploy: Enable online eval configs that have enableOnCreate (CFN deploys them as DISABLED).
     // Only enable configs that are newly deployed — skip configs that already existed before this
     // deploy run, so we don't re-enable configs a customer intentionally disabled.
diff --git a/src/cli/primitives/PaymentManagerPrimitive.ts b/src/cli/primitives/PaymentManagerPrimitive.ts
index 90fe3ef9e..bfd636665 100644
--- a/src/cli/primitives/PaymentManagerPrimitive.ts
+++ b/src/cli/primitives/PaymentManagerPrimitive.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import {
   PaymentManagerSchema,
 } from '../../schema';
 import type { RemoveResult } from '../commands/remove/types';
+import { ANSI } from '../constants';
 import { getErrorMessage } from '../errors';
 import type { RemovalPreview, SchemaChange } from '../operations/remove/types';
 import { getTemplatePath } from '../templates/templateRoot';
@@ -128,7 +129,7 @@ export class PaymentManagerPrimitive extends BasePrimitive<AddPaymentManagerOpti
 
   async add(
     options: AddPaymentManagerOptions
-  ): Promise<AddResult<{ managerName: string; skippedRuntimes?: string[] }>> {
+  ): Promise<AddResult<{ managerName: string; skippedRuntimes?: string[]; autoPaymentWarning?: string }>> {
     try {
       const project = await this.readProjectSpec();
       // payments is optional in the schema (absent on projects with no payment
@@ -189,7 +190,20 @@ export class PaymentManagerPrimitive extends BasePrimitive<AddPaymentManagerOpti
         }
       }
 
-      return { success: true, managerName: options.name, skippedRuntimes };
+      // Auto-payment lets the agent settle 402 responses with no human in the
+      // loop, so surface a warning when it is active. Returned (not printed)
+      // because add() is shared by the CLI and the Ink TUI flow — each caller
+      // renders it through its own channel rather than writing to stderr
+      // mid-render.
+      const effectiveAutoPayment = options.autoPayment ?? DEFAULT_AUTO_PAYMENT;
+      const autoPaymentWarning = effectiveAutoPayment
+        ? `auto-payment is ENABLED for manager "${options.name}". Agents will automatically settle ` +
+          `402 Payment Required responses up to the per-session spend limit ` +
+          `($${options.defaultSpendLimit ?? DEFAULT_SPEND_LIMIT}) with no human approval. ` +
+          `Re-run with --auto-payment false to require manual approval.`
+        : undefined;
+
+      return { success: true, managerName: options.name, skippedRuntimes, autoPaymentWarning };
     } catch (err) {
       return { success: false, error: toError(err) };
     }
@@ -445,6 +459,9 @@ export class PaymentManagerPrimitive extends BasePrimitive<AddPaymentManagerOpti
                 console.log(JSON.stringify(serializeResult(result)));
               } else if (result.success) {
                 console.log(`Added payment manager '${result.managerName}'`);
+                if (result.autoPaymentWarning) {
+                  console.warn(`${ANSI.yellow}Warning: ${result.autoPaymentWarning}${ANSI.reset}`);
+                }
                 if (result.skippedRuntimes && result.skippedRuntimes.length > 0) {
                   console.warn(
                     `\nWarning: payment capability auto-wiring skipped for non-Strands runtime(s): ${result.skippedRuntimes.join(', ')}.`
diff --git a/src/cli/primitives/__tests__/PaymentManagerPrimitive.test.ts b/src/cli/primitives/__tests__/PaymentManagerPrimitive.test.ts
index 7bc1d47c5..c98497e82 100644
--- a/src/cli/primitives/__tests__/PaymentManagerPrimitive.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli/primitives/__tests__/PaymentManagerPrimitive.test.ts
@@ -207,6 +207,27 @@ describe('PaymentManagerPrimitive', () => {
         expect(result.error.message).toBe('disk read failure');
       }
     });
+
+    it('returns an auto-payment warning when enabled (default)', async () => {
+      mockReadProjectSpec.mockResolvedValue(makeProject({ runtimes: [] }));
+
+      const result = await primitive.add({ name: 'mgr1', authorizerType: 'AWS_IAM' });
+
+      expect(result.success).toBe(true);
+      if (!result.success) throw new Error('expected success');
+      expect(result.autoPaymentWarning).toMatch(/auto-payment is enabled/i);
+      expect(result.autoPaymentWarning).toContain('--auto-payment false');
+    });
+
+    it('returns no auto-payment warning when explicitly disabled', async () => {
+      mockReadProjectSpec.mockResolvedValue(makeProject({ runtimes: [] }));
+
+      const result = await primitive.add({ name: 'mgr2', authorizerType: 'AWS_IAM', autoPayment: false });
+
+      expect(result.success).toBe(true);
+      if (!result.success) throw new Error('expected success');
+      expect(result.autoPaymentWarning).toBeUndefined();
+    });
   });
 
   describe('remove()', () => {
diff --git a/src/cli/tui/screens/payment/AddPaymentFlow.tsx b/src/cli/tui/screens/payment/AddPaymentFlow.tsx
index cea6f19d0..e2c15f574 100644
--- a/src/cli/tui/screens/payment/AddPaymentFlow.tsx
+++ b/src/cli/tui/screens/payment/AddPaymentFlow.tsx
@@ -348,9 +348,19 @@ export function AddPaymentFlow({
         ]
       : [];
 
-    const warningFields = !flow.connectorConfig
-      ? [{ label: '⚠ Warning', value: 'No connector — deploy will fail until you add one' }]
-      : [];
+    const warningFields = [
+      ...(flow.managerConfig.autoPayment
+        ? [
+            {
+              label: '⚠ Warning',
+              value: `Auto-payment ENABLED — agent settles 402s automatically up to $${flow.managerConfig.defaultSpendLimit}/session with no human approval`,
+            },
+          ]
+        : []),
+      ...(!flow.connectorConfig
+        ? [{ label: '⚠ Warning', value: 'No connector — deploy will fail until you add one' }]
+        : []),
+    ];
 
     const allFields = [...managerFields, ...connectorFields, ...warningFields];