A daily spending cap is the most credits one simulation or one coach can use in a 24-hour period. Every simulation and coach has one on every plan, and workspace owners and admins can change it. Once the cap is reached, learners cannot send another text message or start a voice session on that simulation or coach until earlier usage drops out of the period or the cap is raised.
Before you start
- You need to be the owner or an admin of the active workspace. In a personal workspace you are the owner. Members of an organization workspace do not see the cap controls, and a cap sent by a member is ignored. See Members, roles, invitations and the activity log.
- The cap limits credits, so it only matters while the workspace has credits to spend. For balances, usage and low-credit alerts, see Credits, usage and low-credit alerts.
- Know roughly how much a day of use costs. Voice sessions use credits much faster than text, so a cap that suits a text simulation can be reached quickly by voice.
How a daily cap works
Each simulation and each coach is measured on its own. The cap that applies is the first of these that is set:
- For a simulation: its own cap, then the workspace default for simulations, then the default of your plan.
- For a coach: its own cap, then the default of your plan. The workspace default does not apply to coaches.
The "day" is not a calendar day and has no time zone or reset time. At every check, devlin.ai adds up the credits the simulation or coach used in the 24 hours before that moment and compares the total with the cap. A blocked simulation or coach becomes available again as its older usage passes out of those 24 hours, or as soon as you raise the cap.
What counts toward the total:
- Every credit charged to that simulation or coach in the period: text turns, voice sessions, the scoring of attempts, and other credit use recorded against the simulation, such as translating it.
- Test runs from the editor. They are checked against the cap and counted like learner sessions.
When the check happens:
- Text: before every new learner message. A message is accepted while the total is below the cap, so the turn that crosses the cap still completes and the total can end slightly above it.
- Voice: only when a voice session starts. A voice session that is already running is not cut off by the cap, and its credits are added to the total when the session ends.
Allowed values
A cap is a whole number of credits. The default and the highest value you can set depend on the workspace's plan:
| Plan | Default cap | Highest cap |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 25,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Team | 15,000 | 200,000 |
| Core | 5,000 | 50,000 |
| Free, Starter | 5,000 | 25,000 |
- An empty cap means "no cap of its own": the simulation or coach falls back as described above. There is no way to switch the cap off entirely. To allow more use, set a higher number, up to the highest cap of your plan.
- In the editor, the lowest value the cap field keeps is 100. Lower entries are raised to it, and higher entries are lowered to the plan's highest cap.
- The workspace default accepts values down to 0. A cap of 0 blocks every text message and every voice start.
- A value outside the plan's range that reaches the server is refused with "Daily credit cap for your plan must be between" followed by the lowest and highest values, and a value with decimals is refused with "Daily credit cap must be a whole number."
Steps
To set the cap of one simulation:
- Open the simulation in the editor and select the Publish stage.
- Find the Daily Credit Cap card at the top. Its description shows the value used when the field is empty: the workspace default if one is set, otherwise the plan default.
- Enter the number of credits per day, or clear the field to go back to the default.
- Select Save Changes.
Result
The new cap applies from the next learner message or voice start. Nothing is recalculated: usage from the last 24 hours still counts against the new number. The simulation does not need to be published again.
Set the cap of a coach
- Open the coach in the editor and select the Publish stage.
- In the Daily Credit Cap card at the top, enter the number of credits per day, or clear the field to use the plan default.
- Select Save in the card. The card shows Saved! when the cap is stored. The coach's cap is saved on its own, separately from the rest of the coach.
Set the workspace default for simulations
The workspace default is the cap for every simulation in the workspace that has no cap of its own. Owners and admins can set it in any workspace, personal or organization.
- Open Settings → Credits & Billing and scroll to Simulation Spending Limit. Members do not see this section.
- In Daily cap per simulation (credits), enter the number of credits, or clear the field to use the plan default.
- Select Save.
What the default does and does not change:
- It applies immediately to existing simulations that have no cap of their own, as well as to new ones, because the default is read at every check.
- It does not change simulations that have their own cap. A simulation's own cap always wins.
- It does not apply to coaches.
What learners see when the cap is reached
Learners are told that a daily limit was reached. They are not shown credit numbers.
- Simulation, text: the message the learner just sent gets no reply, the session ends, and the simulation shows "This simulation has reached its daily limit. Please try again tomorrow." in the simulation's language.
- Simulation, voice: the voice session does not start. The learner sees the heading "Daily usage limit reached" and the text "This experience has reached its daily usage limit. Please try again later." in the simulation's language. The cap is shared by text and voice, so text is blocked at the same time and the screen has no button to move to text.
- Coach, text: the message box is turned off and the coach shows "Daily limit reached. Please try again tomorrow."
- Coach, voice: the voice session does not start, and the learner sees the same "Daily usage limit reached" screen as for a simulation.
The messages say "tomorrow" or "later", but access returns as soon as the usage of the last 24 hours falls below the cap, or when an owner or admin raises it.
Alerts for owners and admins
devlin.ai warns you before learners are blocked. When a learner message or voice start finds that a simulation or coach has used 80% or more of its cap, the owner and admins of the workspace each get:
- A notification in the app: the name of the simulation or coach followed by "has used", the percentage, and "of its daily credit limit." Selecting it opens the Publish stage of that simulation or coach.
- An email with the subject made of the name, "has used", the percentage, and "of its daily credit limit". It states the credits used and the cap, and its Adjust daily limit button opens the same place.
Details:
- Members do not get either alert.
- Each simulation and each coach sends the alert at most once in any 24 hours, however many learners are active. There is no second alert when the cap itself is reached.
- The alert is triggered by learner activity. If usage jumps past the cap in one step, the first alert arrives when the next learner is blocked.
- The email is not sent when the workspace's email address has unsubscribed from devlin.ai emails. The notification in the app is still created.
- There is no banner in the editor or on the dashboard when a cap is reached.
Raise or remove a cap
- To let learners back in right away, raise the cap of the simulation or coach in its Daily Credit Cap card. For a simulation that uses the workspace default, you can raise the default instead.
- To remove a simulation's or coach's own cap, clear the field and save. It then follows the workspace default (simulations only) or the plan default.
- A cap cannot go above the highest cap of your plan, shown in the table under Allowed values. For what else each plan includes, see Plans and what each includes.
A cap is not part of a simulation's or coach's content:
- A duplicate of a simulation or coach does not copy the cap. The copy starts with no cap of its own.
- Restoring an earlier version does not change the cap.
AI tools over MCP
An AI tool connected through the MCP server can read and change caps for an owner or admin, within the same plan range as the app:
- It can read the current cap of a simulation or coach and change it, including clearing it.
- It can set or clear the workspace default for simulations.
- When the connected person is a member, a cap change is refused and nothing is changed.
- Changes to a published simulation or coach, and to the workspace default, need the confirmation or approval that the MCP server requires for live changes.