diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.test.ts b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.test.ts
index 8ad6e39c5e1..2fb92a43d8a 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.test.ts
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.test.ts
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ const END_USER_ROUTE_NOTE = {
   text: noteText("end_user_route_only"),
 } as const;
 
+// Permanently inert for this key: the personal budget is not applied to team keys at all.
+const USER_ON_TEAM_KEY_NOTE = {
+  code: "user_budget_not_applied_to_team_key",
+  severity: "info",
+  text: noteText("user_budget_not_applied_to_team_key"),
+} as const;
+
+// Transient, not dead: the counter is merely cold and the cap blocks once one request warms it.
 const COLD_MODEL_NOTE = {
   code: "model_budget_fails_open",
   severity: "info",
@@ -169,7 +177,7 @@ describe("cannotTrip", () => {
   // Severity answers whether the row already carries the fact in a field, which is orthogonal to
   // whether the row is dead. All four corners occur, so severity can never stand in for deadness.
   it.each([
-    ["info", "dead", COLD_MODEL_NOTE, true],
+    ["info", "dead", USER_ON_TEAM_KEY_NOTE, true],
     ["info", "live", ROLLING_NOTE, false],
     ["warning", "dead", PROJECT_DEAD_NOTE, true],
     ["warning", "live", END_USER_ROUTE_NOTE, false],
@@ -194,6 +202,20 @@ describe("cannotTrip", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("cold per-model counters", () => {
+  it("stays live, because the cap blocks as soon as one request warms the counter", () => {
+    expect(COLD_MODEL_NOTE.severity).toBe("info");
+    expect(cannotTrip({ ...HEALTHY, scope: "key_model", notes: [COLD_MODEL_NOTE] })).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it("is not lumped in with a budget that is permanently inert", () => {
+    expect(cannotTrip({ ...HEALTHY, notes: [USER_ON_TEAM_KEY_NOTE] })).toBe(true);
+    expect(rowRank({ ...HEALTHY, scope: "key_model", notes: [COLD_MODEL_NOTE] })).toBeLessThan(
+      rowRank({ ...HEALTHY, notes: [USER_ON_TEAM_KEY_NOTE] }),
+    );
+  });
+});
+
 describe("isThrottled", () => {
   it("never blames a throttled budget for a denial, because going over slows rather than rejects", () => {
     const throttledOver: KeyBudgetEntry = {
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.tsx
index d5a83f7a5cb..ceb2bf31bf2 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/KeyBudgetsTableColumns.tsx
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ const isAlertOnly = (entry: KeyBudgetEntry): boolean => entry.enforcement === "s
 
 /**
  * Whether a note means the row is dead: it cannot reject a request no matter what the numbers say.
+ * Only a permanent property counts. `model_budget_fails_open` is deliberately not dead, because a
+ * cold counter is transient: the budget is live and blocks as soon as one request warms it, so
+ * calling it dead tells someone to ignore a cap that stops them a minute later.
+ *
  * Deadness is a property of the code alone. Severity does not imply it in either direction, since
  * dead codes appear under both values, so an unclassified code is assumed live: calling a row dead
  * when it is not invites dismissing the budget that actually stopped the request, which is the one
@@ -43,7 +47,7 @@ const CODE_KILLS_ROW: Readonly<Record<KeyBudgetNoteCode, boolean>> = {
   alert_only: false,
   custom_auth_may_override_end_user_cap: false,
   end_user_route_only: false,
-  model_budget_fails_open: true,
+  model_budget_fails_open: false,
   per_model_counters: false,
   project_spend_not_tracked: true,
   request_tags_add_budgets: false,
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/key_info_view.budgets_tab.test.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/key_info_view.budgets_tab.test.tsx
index ed34bf4e193..b84e38f9064 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/key_info_view.budgets_tab.test.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/templates/key_info_view.budgets_tab.test.tsx
@@ -225,7 +225,30 @@ const OVERLONG_NOTE_TEXT = `${"a caveat clause that keeps going ".repeat(16)}end
 
 const ALL_BUDGETS = [KEY_UNLIMITED, USER_WITHIN_BUDGET, TEAM_SOFT_OVER, TEAM_MEMBER_BLOCKING, ORG_UNCONFIGURED];
 
+// A fixture the resolver cannot produce is how a rendering bug hides: a cold per-model row built
+// with no notes and a computed `remaining` looked healthy while the real one rendered as dead.
+// Hold every fixture to the invariants _to_entry guarantees.
+const assertServerCouldEmit = (budgets: readonly KeyBudgetEntry[]): void => {
+  for (const budget of budgets) {
+    // Scoped to the states the resolver defines today; a fixture simulating a newer server is
+    // deliberately outside them and only has to satisfy the invariants that are not state-specific.
+    if (["live", "no_counter", "unavailable"].includes(budget.spend_state)) {
+      expect(budget.spend_state === "live").toBe(budget.spend !== null);
+    }
+    expect(budget.status === "unlimited").toBe(budget.max_budget === null);
+    if (budget.spend == null || budget.max_budget == null) {
+      expect(budget.remaining).toBeNull();
+    } else {
+      expect(budget.remaining).toBeCloseTo(budget.max_budget - budget.spend, 6);
+    }
+    if (budget.spend_state === "no_counter") {
+      expect(budget.notes.map((note) => note.code)).toContain("model_budget_fails_open");
+    }
+  }
+};
+
 const mockBudgets = (budgets: KeyBudgetEntry[]) => {
+  assertServerCouldEmit(budgets);
   const loaded = { data: { key: "test-token-123", budgets }, isLoading: false, isError: false, error: null };
   apiMocks.useQuery.mockReturnValue(loaded);
 };
@@ -329,20 +352,29 @@ describe("KeyInfoView Budgets tab", () => {
     expect(row).toHaveTextContent("Blocks at ≥ $1,000.00");
   });
 
+  // The resolver nulls `remaining` whenever spend is null and always attaches the cold note to a
+  // `no_counter` reading, so a fixture without both is one the server cannot produce.
+  const COLD_PER_MODEL: KeyBudgetEntry = {
+    ...UNCONFIGURED_BUDGET,
+    scope: "key_model",
+    entity_type: "key",
+    entity_id: "claude-opus-5",
+    entity_label: "claude-opus-5",
+    max_budget: 40,
+    spend: null,
+    spend_state: "no_counter",
+    remaining: null,
+    comparison: ">",
+    source: "key.model_max_budget[claude-opus-5]",
+    status: "ok",
+    notes: [
+      { code: "per_model_counters", severity: "warning", text: noteText("per_model_counters") },
+      { code: "model_budget_fails_open", severity: "info", text: noteText("model_budget_fails_open") },
+    ],
+  };
+
   it("shows a genuine no-counter-yet zero as $0.00 with its meter, not as unknown", async () => {
-    const cold: KeyBudgetEntry = {
-      ...UNCONFIGURED_BUDGET,
-      scope: "key_model",
-      entity_type: "key",
-      entity_label: "claude-opus-5",
-      max_budget: 40,
-      spend: null,
-      spend_state: "no_counter",
-      remaining: 40,
-      source: "key.model_max_budget",
-      status: "ok",
-    };
-    mockBudgets([cold]);
+    mockBudgets([COLD_PER_MODEL]);
     const panel = await renderAndOpenBudgetsTab();
 
     const row = rowFor(panel, "claude-opus-5");
@@ -351,6 +383,21 @@ describe("KeyInfoView Budgets tab", () => {
     expect(within(row).getByRole("meter")).toBeInTheDocument();
   });
 
+  it("keeps a cold per-model budget live, since one request warms the counter and it starts blocking", async () => {
+    mockBudgets([COLD_PER_MODEL, KEY_UNLIMITED]);
+    const panel = await renderAndOpenBudgetsTab();
+
+    const row = rowFor(panel, "claude-opus-5");
+    expect(within(row).getByText("Within budget")).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(within(row).queryByText("Cannot trip")).not.toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(within(row).getByText("Blocks requests")).toBeInTheDocument();
+    expect(row).toHaveTextContent("Blocks at > $40.00");
+
+    // A live budget must outrank a scope with nothing configured, never sink below it.
+    const [, ...dataRows] = panel.getAllByRole("row");
+    expect(dataRows[0]).toHaveTextContent("claude-opus-5");
+  });
+
   it("treats a spend state this build predates as unreadable rather than as a confident number", async () => {
     const future: KeyBudgetEntry = {
       ...UNCONFIGURED_BUDGET,