Alpha AI spend and budget

What this does Every question you ask Alpha uses AI, and that has a cost. MSP Process tracks this as AI spend. You can see how much your company has spent…

What this does

Every question you ask Alpha uses AI, and that has a cost. MSP Process tracks this as AI spend. You can see how much your company has spent and how close it is to any limits. MSP Process sets the limits for your company.

Before you start

• You need the Tenant Admin role to see AI spend.
• Limits are set by MSP Process, not in your portal. To change a limit, contact MSP Process support.

See spend at a glance

1. Go to AI Service Desk > Alpha > Overview.
2. Look at the AI spend tile under Last 7 days.

The tile shows one of these lines:

• No spend limit set
• $x today of$y daily limit
• $x this month of$y limit
• Not tracked yet, with the note “Cost tracking starts once model prices are set.”

See spend in detail

1. Go to AI Service Desk > Alpha > Activity & usage.
2. Choose 7d, 30d or 90d.
3. Click the AI spend tab.

The tab shows:

• Last N days and Today: total spend.
• Conversation turns: how many questions and answers that covers.
• Daily limit, if one is set.
• Today against the daily limit and This month against the monthly limit: how much of each limit is used.
• By model: spend split by the AI model used.

What limits can be set

MSP Process can set three limits for your company:

Limit	What it does	When it resets
Questions per person per day	How many questions each person can ask Alpha in a day.	Midnight UTC
Daily spend per organization (USD)	The most your company can spend on Alpha in a day.	Midnight UTC
Monthly spend per organization (USD)	The most your company can spend on Alpha in a month.	The first of the month, at midnight UTC

A blank limit means no limit. A limit of 0 blocks every question. Your company either uses the standard limits or has custom limits.

All days and months use UTC, not your local time zone. For example, midnight UTC is 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM the day before on the US west coast, depending on daylight saving time.

Some things to know about how the limits are counted:

• Spend limits cover all of your company’s Alpha use. This includes typed chat, voice, scheduled reports and live assist on calls.
• The questions limit is counted per person. The automatic suggestions from live assist on calls don’t count toward it. Questions a technician types into live assist do count.
• When a limit is reached, it blocks typed chat, voice questions, live assist questions and the actions live assist drafts. On scheduled reports it blocks only the rewritten summary.

Voice and dictation minutes

Voice and dictation each have a separate daily allowance of minutes for your whole company. This allowance is not part of the spend limits. Both reset at midnight UTC.

• Each person can have one voice session at a time.
• Only a limited number of voice sessions can run at the same time across your company.
• A voice session ends on its own when it reaches its time limit, or when nobody has spoken for a while. Click Start voice again to continue. Your conversation is saved.

Live assist on calls

Live assist suggestions also have their own small daily allowance for your company, which resets at midnight UTC. When it runs out, live assist shows Limit reached and stops drafting actions such as tickets and time entries. Past tickets and documentation cards can still appear, and technicians can still ask Alpha questions. See “Live assist on calls”.

Ways to keep spend down

• Ask focused questions, for example name the client or ticket.
• An admin can set Typed chat speed to Fast in Alpha > Settings > Chat and voice. Thorough does more work per answer.
• Turn off scheduled reports and dashboards you no longer need. See “Reports” and “Dashboards”.

Troubleshooting

In the chat, a limit message appears in a banner above the message box. The chat adds “Try again in 30s.” to the end of the message. This countdown only stops you from sending again too fast. The limit itself stays in place until the reset time in the message.

Message	What it means	What to do
You’ve reached today’s Alpha limit. It resets at midnight UTC.	You’ve asked the most questions one person can ask today.	Wait until midnight UTC, or ask a colleague. To raise the limit, contact MSP Process support.
Your organization has reached today’s Alpha limit. It resets at midnight UTC.	Your company has reached its daily spend limit. Everyone in your company is blocked until the reset.	Wait until midnight UTC, or contact MSP Process support.
Your organization has reached this month’s Alpha limit. It resets on the first of the month (UTC).	Your company has reached its monthly spend limit.	Wait until the first of next month, or contact MSP Process support.
Today’s voice minutes are used up Your organization has used its voice minutes for today.	Your company has used today’s voice minutes.	Type or dictate instead. Voice comes back at midnight UTC.
You already have a voice session You already have a voice session active. End it before starting another.	You have voice open in another tab or on another device.	End voice there, then try again.
Too many voice sessions right now Too many voice sessions are active for your organization right now. Try again shortly.	Too many people in your company are using voice at the same time.	Try again in a few minutes.
Voice ended Voice ended because it was quiet for a while.	Nobody spoke for a while, so voice stopped.	Click Start voice again.
Voice ended Voice ended: this session reached its time limit.	The voice session reached its time limit.	Click Start voice again. Your conversation is saved.
This tenant has used its dictation minutes for today. Try again tomorrow.	Your company has used today’s dictation minutes.	Type instead. Dictation comes back at midnight UTC.
No AI spend in this period.	Nobody used Alpha in this period, or tracking hasn’t started.	Pick a longer period, or check again later.
Not tracked yet	Cost tracking starts once model prices are set.	Contact MSP Process support if this persists.

FAQ

What happens when we reach a limit?

Alpha stops answering until the limit resets. The daily limits reset at midnight UTC. The monthly limit resets on the first of the month (UTC). The message in the chat tells you which limit you reached. Contact MSP Process support if you need a higher limit.

Does a reached limit stop our scheduled reports?

No. The report still runs and shows its data. If the schedule has Rewrite the summary each run turned on, Alpha can’t write the new summary. The run then shows Some data missing and the note “The summary couldn’t be written this time because your organization’s Alpha usage limit was reached.” See “Reports”.

Why does the limit reset in the afternoon?

The limits use UTC time. In the Americas, midnight UTC falls in the afternoon or evening of the day before.