Usage & limits

AI-heavy features have a monthly allowance so costs stay predictable. You can see exactly where you stand at any time under Usage & limits in your account menu (top right).

What's metered

Features that call AI to produce something carry an allowance, for example:

• Reports and recommendations
• Copywriting and social drafts
• AI Search engine queries
• Market research scans
• Ad Studio briefs, images, campaign ideas and variant scoring
• Web Concierge replies
• Talk to your Brain
• Document reading
• Brand identity scans

Background, always-on intelligence (like the Brain's own reflection) isn't something you have to ration - the allowances apply to the things you actively trigger.

Allowances count the work, not the clicks

Each allowance is measured in the unit the work is actually done in, which is not always one-per-button-press:

• AI Search counts engine queries, not scans. One scan is one query per active prompt per connected engine, so a 30-prompt basket across 3 engines is 90 queries. A smaller basket buys proportionally more scans.
• Ad Studio images counts images produced, not generations. Asking for two sizes uses two.
• Voice Outreach counts calls placed, test calls included - a test call rings a real phone, so it counts like any other.
• Market research counts scans, and a competitor is scanned when you add it or confirm a proposed one, not only when you press Run analysis.

You may get a partial result rather than a refusal

Where the platform can do some of what you asked, it does, and tells you what it held back rather than quietly delivering less:

• Ask Ad Studio for more image sizes than your allowance has left and it generates what it can, then says so.
• Add a competitor with no market-research allowance left and the competitor is still added - only the scan waits until the allowance resets.

Checking your usage

Usage & limits shows, for each tool, how much of the allowance you've used - a bar, the counts ("12 of 30") and the percentage. A line at the top gives you the short answer: either everything is comfortably within limits, or exactly which allowances are used up or running low.

Whatever is closest to its ceiling is listed first, so the things you might need to act on are at the top. Anything at 80% or more is flagged Running low and tells you how many are left; anything at its ceiling is flagged Limit reached. Tools where one press isn't one use - AI Search, Ad Studio images, Voice Outreach - say so on their own row.

No surprises, and no dollar figures: it's all in plain counts.

When you hit a limit

You'll see a message naming the feature, like "You've used all of this month's Reports (10/10). Upgrade your plan for a higher limit, or it resets at the start of next month." Allowances reset on the 1st of each month (UTC). If you regularly run out, upgrading your plan or a bring-your-own-key plan lifts the caps on AI-heavy features.

There's also a background daily spend safeguard - a circuit breaker for an unusually heavy day, separate from the monthly allowances. If it trips you'll see a message telling you today's AI allowance for the account is used up and that it resets at 00:00 UTC. Nothing is lost; try again after the reset.

On your own AI key

If you run bring-your-own-key, the AI features billed to your own key show as Included with your key instead of a percentage - there's no ceiling for us to hold you to. Tools that run on platform services either way (images, AI Search engines, calling) keep their allowance.

Want more headroom?