Last updated: 2026-05-21

AI usage limits

Every AI-powered action in Anchorlet — an Elliot chat reply, a statement extracted from a PDF, a photo analysed, a draft generated — has a real cost to Anchorlet behind it. To keep those costs predictable and your subscription value sustainable, each workspace has a daily cap on AI calls. Within the cap, everything works normally. Past it, you'll see a banner; well past it, calls slow down or stop until the next reset.

The cap is a soft limit with four named states. You'll usually never hit any of them — the daily cap is generous enough for normal work — but knowing the states helps if you ever do.

The four states

The cap is calculated as your day's AI-call count divided by your workspace's daily limit. The ratio moves you through four bands:

  • OK — below 80% of your daily limit. No banner. Everything works normally.
  • Warning — 80% to just under 100%. A yellow banner appears above the Elliot chat input: "You've used X of Y AI calls today. Limit resets at 00:00 Dublin time." Dismissable for the rest of your session. Calls still go through normally.
  • Slow — 100% to 150%. A red banner appears: "You've reached your daily AI limit. Responses may be slower until midnight Dublin." Each AI response gets a 2-second delay added before it streams back, so the system is noticeably slower but still working.
  • Blocked — above 150%. The red banner persists ("Daily AI limit reached. Resets at 00:00 Dublin time.") and the chat input is disabled. You can still read everything you already have; new AI work waits until the daily reset.

The reset happens at midnight Dublin time, DST-aware — so it tracks IST in summer and GMT in winter without daylight-saving surprises.

What counts toward the cap

Every AI call site contributes to the daily count: Elliot chat, statement PDF extraction, document classifier, photo / vision analysis, compliance certificate extraction, email body routing, and the email-draft helpers. Inbound email routing and bulk-import classification still count toward the telemetry but are wired to never block — automated mail processing shouldn't go silently undelivered just because you've been chatty with Elliot all morning.

Your workspace's daily cap

Each workspace has its own daily AI-call cap, sized to be comfortable for normal use of that workspace's pattern. You can see your current cap, your day's count, and which band you're in at Settings → Usage. If you're regularly approaching the cap, that's a sign your workspace is undersized for your usage — contact support and the team will adjust it.

When you hit the cap

Two paths, depending on whether the cap-hit feels like a normal busy day or a real problem:

  • Wait for reset. The daily counter resets at midnight Dublin time. Whatever you didn't get done today, pick up tomorrow.
  • Contact support. If you keep hitting the cap, or you're hitting it because of a one-off (a big import, a backlog catch-up, an audit), contact support. The team can grant a one-off override or bump your workspace's cap permanently.

Where to check usage

Settings → Usage is the canonical view. The "AI calls today" widget at the top shows your current count, the threshold band, how long until the Dublin midnight reset, and your tier. Below that, a per-event-type aggregate over the last 30 days surfaces which AI surface is consuming most of your budget — usually Elliot chat, occasionally statement extraction if you've uploaded a stack of PDFs.

A real example

Orla manages a busy portfolio for Padraig. On a chaotic Tuesday morning — three boiler issues at three different properties, four tenant emails to triage, two new leases to extract — she chats heavily with Elliot. By lunchtime the yellow Warning banner appears: she's used about 80% of her workspace's daily limit.

She dismisses it (it'll come back if she crosses into Slow), keeps working through the afternoon, and shuts down just below the Slow threshold — no responses delayed. If she had crossed 100%, calls would have arrived 2 seconds slower each; at 150%, the chat input would have disabled. Her workspace's cap is sized for days like this.

Things to know

  • Inbound email never blocks. Tenant emails arriving via the routing pipeline are never dropped on the floor for cap reasons. They count toward telemetry but always go through.
  • Bulk imports use a per-file check. A 100-PDF batch won't all-or-nothing fail mid-way. Whichever file is in flight when you cross 150% completes; the next file is the one that gets blocked.
  • The cap is per workspace, not per user. A PM with access to multiple landlord workspaces has separate caps in each. Hitting the cap in Padraig's workspace doesn't affect what you can do in Aisling's.
  • Cap overrides land instantly. If the team adjusts your workspace's daily_ai_call_limit, the next AI call uses the new number — no deploy, no re-login.

Next steps