Quotas and reservations
How Autopilot spends a Project's allowance, why it reserves before it works, and what happens when the allowance runs out.
On this page
Autopilot spends real allowance, and it spends it carefully, because two runs that both believed they had the last post would produce one post too many and one failed charge.
Reservation before work
A run reserves the posts and images it is about to use before it produces anything. The reservation is what makes the allowance safe under concurrency: a second run sees the reservation and plans around it rather than double spending.
If a run fails after reserving, the reservation is released rather than consuming allowance for work that does not exist.
What is metered
| Meter | Scope | Paid plan | Free grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posts | Per Project | Per billing period | Lifetime total |
| Topics | Per Project | Per billing period | Lifetime total |
| Images | Per Project | Per billing period | Lifetime total |
| Revisions | Per post | Per post | Regeneration is off |
| Competitors | Per Project | Standing limit | Standing limit |
There is no workspace wide meter. A workspace running two Projects has two independent allowances. See usage and limits.
When the allowance runs out
Autopilot stops producing for that Project. It does not borrow from another Project, and it does not carry the shortfall forward.
On a paid plan it resumes when the billing period rolls over. On a Free Project there is no rollover to wait for: the grant is a lifetime total, so production stays stopped until the Project is upgraded.
Autopilot still runs on Free
Both automation modes are included in the Free grant, so a Free Project can run Assisted or Full and can publish on its own where its Directions allow it. What Free changes is the counter behind the run, not the automation in front of it.
Free planning works inside a rolling seven day horizon. That horizon is a planning window, not a second allowance: it decides which plan a run belongs to, and it never refills the lifetime counter underneath it.
During a trial
A trial applies a smaller ceiling over the plan you chose, so a trialing Project reaches its limit sooner than the plan alone would suggest. That ceiling does reset with the billing period once the trial converts, which is the difference between it and a Free grant. See the trial.