Intelligent management of authorization requests are described. A server of a payment processing service can receive an authorization request to authorize a payment instrument for a predicted cost of a transaction between a first user and a second user. The server can compare the predicted cost of the transaction with an available balance of the payment instrument and determine that the available balance is less than the predicted cost of the transaction. Based on determining that the available balance is less than the predicted cost of the transaction, the server can determine that the payment instrument is not authorized for the predicted cost of the transaction and can authorize the transaction instead of declining the transaction based at least in part on a prediction of the actual cost of the transaction.