AI Usage & Budget
Every AI tool in HandyBook — Quote from Photo, Quote from Voice, Scan a Receipt, AI Insights, and the customer chatbot — draws from one shared pool of AI usage. This article explains the monthly budget, what happens when it's used up, and how to buy more.
One shared budget per account
Your AI usage is metered as real cost, with a hard cap of $20.00 of AI usage per account, per month. The budget is org-wide — everyone on your team shares the same pool, so all your AI tools draw from the same $20. (Solo accounts get their own pool.) The meter resets at the start of each calendar month.
Because each action only costs a fraction of a cent, $20 covers a lot: roughly thousands of photo, voice, or receipt actions every month before you'd ever hit the cap.
AI tools are a Business-plan feature, so the budget only applies to Business accounts.
Watch your remaining budget
The AI Budget widget on your dashboard shows, for the current month:
- The dollar amount left (included budget plus any credits)
- How much you've used of your $20
- The number of calls and tokens so far
- A progress bar that turns red if you're paused
If you've bought credits, the widget shows them as an extra "+ $X credits" line on top of the monthly budget.
What happens when the budget runs out
When the pool is empty, AI pauses for the rest of the month:
- Quote from Voice shows: "AI is paused for this month — your $20 AI budget is used up," with a pointer to Billing.
- Other tools return the same paused state and offer to open the buy-credits dialog.
- The customer chatbot never shows your customers any billing language — it simply replies that the team will follow up and flags the chat for handoff.
Nothing breaks — paused just means AI features wait until the budget resets next month, or until you add credits.
Buying AI credit packs
To keep going before the monthly reset, buy a one-time credit pack. Packs are sold at a 50% service markup over the underlying AI cost (it's OpenAI's API cost plus that markup), and credits carry over month to month until used — they're consumed only after your included $20 is spent.
| Pack | Price | AI usage runway |
|---|---|---|
| Top-up | $9 | ~$6 of AI usage (≈ 2,000 actions) |
| Plus | $18 | ~$12 of AI usage (≈ 4,000 actions) |
| Pro top-up | $45 | ~$30 of AI usage (≈ 10,000 actions) |
How to buy
- When AI is paused, the AI is paused for this month dialog opens with the three packs. You can also reach it from the dashboard AI Budget widget's buy credits link.
- Pick a pack — the dialog shows the price and the AI-usage runway it unlocks.
- You're sent to Stripe Checkout to pay.
- After payment you land back on the dashboard with a confirmation toast, and the credits are added to your pool automatically.
Purchases are non-refundable. Crediting is idempotent, so a double-click or a browser refresh on the success page can't charge or credit you twice.
FAQ
Is the budget per user or per company? Per account — your whole org shares one $20 monthly pool.
Do unused credits expire? No. Bought credits carry over until you use them. The included $20 monthly budget does reset each month (it doesn't roll over).
Which is spent first, my budget or my credits? Your included monthly budget is used first; credits are only drawn down once it's gone.
Why am I paused when I've barely used AI? The whole org shares the pool — a teammate may have used it. Check the AI Budget widget to see total usage for the month.