Credit and rate limits

Blake meters two things: credits (per action) and rate (how many requests per minute or hour). When you hit either, Blake shows a message and asks you to wait or upgrade. This article decodes the messages.

The two limits

• Credits are consumed when Blake does work: sending an Ask Blake question, drafting an email, running Discovery. Your monthly credit balance resets every 28 days.
• Rate limits are short-window caps that protect the workspace from runaway loops or accidental over-use (for example, a hundred chat messages a minute).

The messages sound similar but they behave differently:

• Rate-limit messages ask you to wait a moment and try again.
• Credit messages ask you to wait for the monthly reset or upgrade.

Rate-limit messages

"Slow down a sec. Try again in a moment."

You hit the per-minute rate limit. Blake meters chat at a burst of a few messages per minute and around 80 per hour per user.

Fix: wait 60 seconds and try again. If it keeps happening, spread your work across multiple short sessions instead of a single burst.

"Rate limit reached."

You hit the per-hour cap. Blake blocks new chat requests for the rest of the hour.

Fix: come back after the hour rolls over. If you regularly hit this cap and want a higher one, upgrade your plan.

Credit messages

"Credits exhausted. Upgrade your plan to continue."

You hit your Discovery Credit or Usage Credit cap for the month. Every plan has its own cap; higher plans get more headroom.

Fix: go to Settings > Usage to see which pool ran out. Options:

• Wait for the monthly reset. Blake resets credits every 28 days.
• Upgrade to a higher plan at Settings > Billing. Upgrades apply immediately.

"Insufficient credits."

A specific action needs more credits than you have left. Blake refuses the action but does not block the rest of the app.

Fix: same as above.

Check your usage

Usage is always available under Settings > Usage. That page shows your current credit balance, the split between the two pools (Usage Credits and Discovery Credits), and the reset date.

When your workspace reaches important usage thresholds (for example 80% or higher), Blake also displays a usage indicator in the left sidebar and sends spend alerts to the billing administrators.

What consumes credits

Blake meters two credit pools:

• Usage Credits cover Ask Blake work: chat questions, briefings, email drafts, period summaries, and any request that goes through Ask Blake.
• Discovery Credits cover Discovery: every discovered prospect costs 150 Discovery Credits.

Rough shape:

• Simple Ask Blake questions: typically cost about 10 Usage Credits.
• Email drafts: a small handful of Usage Credits.
• Discovery: 150 Discovery Credits per discovered prospect. A run that discovers 20 prospects costs 3,000 Discovery Credits.
• Deep research: heaviest. Batched work like period summaries costs more Usage Credits per invocation.

Connectors and credits

When you ask Blake something that requires connected systems, Blake first retrieves the relevant information through the appropriate connector. That retrieved information becomes additional context for the conversation, just like information you manually pasted into Ask Blake. The resulting Ask Blake request is billed as normal Usage Credits based on the complete context that was processed.

Connectors themselves are not billed separately; only the Ask Blake request that uses them.

When Blake refuses to run

• Chat refuses with a credit message: the Usage Credit pool is empty. Contact your Owner to upgrade the plan, or wait for the monthly reset.
• Discovery refuses "Run profile" with a tooltip: your Discovery Credit pool is empty for the period. Same fix.
• A skill refuses mid-flight: usually cheap-to-retry. Check Settings > Usage first.

Prevent surprise limits

• Check your usage in Settings > Usage before larger runs. That is the one place with the current numbers.
• Spend alerts are on by default. Blake automatically notifies the billing administrator email addresses when important usage thresholds are reached.
• Stagger Discovery runs. A single large run in the morning uses the same credits as one big run and one small run; splitting them gives you finer control.

If a limit does not clear when it should

• Rate limit: refresh the page. Sometimes the client cache holds on to an expired lock briefly.
• Credit reset overdue: monthly resets run at night. Ask your Admin to check Settings > Usage for the last reset date.

FAQ