> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vistazo.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Usage

> Your compute allowance, what consumes it, and what happens when it runs out.

Every licence carries a monthly **compute allowance**. Find yours under **Settings → Usage**, or
**Settings → Billing** on a personal workspace.

The allowance is shown as a **percentage consumed**, not a dollar figure. Dollars are reserved for money
you actually spend, meaning seats and credit packs.

## What consumes it

Three groups, which is how the breakdown on your Usage card is organized.

|                |                                                                              |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Dashboards** | Chart building, data refreshes, parameter views, background dashboard upkeep |
| **Chats**      | Conversations with Vistazo AI, the files you attach, and web lookups         |
| **Tools**      | Vistazo's own data tools called directly from your MCP client                |

<Note>
  A **scheduled refresh makes no model call**. It re-executes a stored transform, which is why schedules
  are on every plan. The model comes back when a source changes shape and the transform has to be
  repaired. Refreshes still consume compute, just not model compute.
</Note>

Applying a filter is metered too, per affected widget. It is small, but it is not free, and a member at
their limit cannot apply one.

## Credit packs

On Pro you can buy credit packs in real dollars, and they **do not expire**.

The draw order is **monthly allowance first, then packs**, so a pack is a buffer that survives the month
rather than something consumed before your included allowance. A Pro subscription that lapses keeps its
packs; you just cannot buy more until you are back on Pro.

**Auto top-up** can keep a balance from hitting zero unattended. Set a pack size and a floor, and a spend
that drops the balance below the floor buys another pack. It is an admin setting, off until somebody
turns it on, and a declined charge stops it for the rest of the period rather than retrying.

## Running out

What happens depends on where you are.

**On your own account**, you stop until the allowance resets on your monthly anchor, or until you buy a
pack. Reading published dashboards is unaffected.

**In a shared workspace**, further usage can spill into the workspace's **shared pool**, bounded by two
things: the overage limit an admin set for you, and the workspace's own monthly credit budget.

| Your limit      | Effect                                                                                       |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `0`             | No overage. You stop at your allowance. **This is the default for new members.**             |
| A dollar amount | You may spend up to that much of the pool per billing period                                 |
| Unlimited       | No per-member cap. The workspace's monthly credit budget and the pool balance are the bounds |

Adding members is free and safe until an admin deliberately opens the valve. Admins set limits per member
from **Settings → Members**, or a workspace-wide default that untouched members follow.

When the pool runs dry, admins are notified.

## Viewer seats

A viewer seat carries **no allowance of its own**, and granted budget buys a restricted set of things:
asking questions, applying filters, extracting an upload. It does not buy authoring or refreshing, which
are refused regardless of balance. See
[Permissions](/sharing/permissions#viewer-seats-cannot-author).

## Capacity, as distinct from compute

Two limits are counts rather than consumption, and both attach to your licence.

* **Dashboards you own** — 3 on a free licence, unlimited on Pro. Going over, for instance if a Pro
  licence lapses, freezes authoring until you archive enough to get back under. Nothing is deleted.
* **Storage** — 100 MB free, 10 GB on Pro, for uploaded files. Manage your own files from the Usage card;
  admins see the whole workspace under **Settings → Storage**.

## A note on timing

Spend is folded into the counters by a rollup that runs every minute rather than by the call that spent
it, so the figure you are reading can lag by about that much. Limits are enforced against that figure,
which means a hard stop is soft by roughly one minute's burn.