Usage Limits
Chat credits (daily cap)
- Allocation: You receive 1000 credits per day for AI chat. The header shows remaining / 1000 (for example
438 / 1000). - What spends credits: Sending messages in chat—including follow-ups, answers to multiple-choice questions, and Atlas’s replies. Cost grows with how long and complex each exchange is (longer text, more steps, deeper research-style answers).
- What does not spend chat credits: Browsing the dashboard, opening and managing strategy cards, portfolio tracking, settings, and running backtests on your own strategies. Those stay outside the chat credit meter. (See Credits for the full breakdown and rough cost examples.)
Reset: Credits refill on a daily schedule at midnight UTC. Unused credits do not roll over—you start again at 1000 after each reset.
Running out: When you hit 0, chat is blocked until the next reset. The UI shows a message such as “Credits exhausted. Resets in Xh Ym.” with a countdown. You can still use the rest of Atlas while you wait.
When your balance drops below 50%, the counter turns red as a heads-up.
Switching models (Atlas Lite vs Atlas)
Below the chat input you can choose:
| Model | Typical use | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas Lite (Default) | Fast answers, straightforward strategy searches | 3x-4x lower cost per exchange |
| Atlas | Harder questions, comparisons, multi-step reasoning | Higher cost per exchange |
You may switch at any time between messages. If you are near the end of your daily credits, Lite is the safer default for simple searches; switch to Atlas when you need extra depth and accept that it will usually burn credits faster.
More context: Chatting with Atlas (model selector and sessions).
Saving credits when a chat gets long
Atlas uses your current session’s history so follow-ups make sense—but every new message can include the whole thread when Atlas replies. As a chat grows very long, each send tends to cost more credits than the same question asked in a short thread, because there is more context to read and summarize.
Practical habit: When you move on to a new topic or a new search and the sidebar thread is already huge, click New Chat instead of continuing forever in the same session. You keep older chats in the list if you need them; you are not deleting your account—just starting a clean context so the next questions do not drag an unrelated novel of messages into every reply.
Combine that with specific first messages (asset, timeframe, indicator, goal) so Atlas needs fewer clarification rounds—see Prompting tips and Finding strategies.
Quick checklist: (1) Prefer Atlas Lite for simple jobs. (2) Use New Chat for unrelated questions after a long thread. (3) Put the important constraints in message one.
Other limits
Sometimes Atlas shows a short message if something is busy, unavailable, or needs a retry. Follow any on-screen instruction (“wait,” “try again,” and so on). If nothing helps after a short wait, use AlgoAlpha Support & Knowledge.