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Ankra meters every AI request - AI Assistant chats, autonomous agent sessions, AI Insights, incident analysis, CI/CD file generation - into a per-organisation usage ledger. Each request records the tokens used per model and is priced in USD.

Keep unlimited AI: bring your own OpenRouter key

Add your organisation’s own OpenRouter API key and the free allowance stops being a limit - all AI usage runs on your own account instead.

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Where to See Your Usage

Open Billing → Overview from the organisation sidebar. It shows:
  • Month-to-date AI usage - what your organisation has spent on AI so far this calendar month.
  • The allowance meter - how much of the free monthly allowance remains.

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The Free Monthly Allowance

Every organisation gets a free monthly AI allowance. It covers AI usage served on Ankra’s platform key (via OpenRouter) - the default when your organisation has not configured its own provider.
Defaults are subject to change. The live allowance for your organisation is always shown on the Billing → Overview page.
The allowance counts platform-funded usage only. Usage on your organisation’s own key - an OpenRouter key, an Anthropic key, or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint - never draws on it.

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When the Allowance Runs Out

When the allowance is used up, AI features that would spend Ankra’s key are paused for the rest of the month. Paused requests fail with the stable error code AI_ALLOWANCE_EXHAUSTED, and the error message points to adding your own key. Everything else keeps working:
  • The rest of the platform is unaffected - clusters, deployments, GitOps, monitoring, and alerts all continue as normal.
  • AI on your own key is unaffected - if your organisation has its own provider configured and active, the allowance never pauses it.
The allowance resets at the start of the next calendar month (UTC).

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The AI_ALLOWANCE_EXHAUSTED Error

AI_ALLOWANCE_EXHAUSTED is a stable code you can match on in automation. It means your organisation’s free monthly allowance for platform-funded AI is used up. To resume AI before the monthly reset:
  1. Bring your own OpenRouter API key (recommended) or configure another provider under AI Provider, or
  2. Wait for the reset at the start of the next calendar month (UTC), or
  3. Contact support about a larger allowance.

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Daily Spend Cap vs Monthly Allowance

The monthly allowance is distinct from the daily AI spend cap, a separate self-serve control on Billing → Overview: Use the daily cap as a brake on overall AI activity; the allowance only caps what Ankra’s platform key funds for free.

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Larger Allowances

Platform administrators can grant a larger allowance or an exemption per organisation. If your organisation needs more free headroom, contact support.