AI limits and usage

Pro comes with a generous, fixed allowance of AI actions so that AI stays fast and affordable for everyone. This page explains what counts as an action, where to see how many you have left, and what happens at the limit.

What it is

Limit	Covers	Resets
20 AI actions a day	Ask, Suggest questions, Extract, Translate, Read handwriting, Count objects, and Word or Excel with “Keep the layout”	Midnight (UTC)
300 AI actions a month	The same actions, added up over the month	The start of the next month
100 namings a day	Naming and sorting with AI, automatic or when you ask	Midnight (UTC)

The daily and monthly limits work together: you can use up to 20 actions on any day, as long as the month’s total stays under 300.

What counts as one action

Ask: each question you send.
Suggest questions: each tap.
Extract: each extraction, including Extract again. Opening saved details is free.
Translate: each new translation of a document into one language. Reopening a saved translation is free.
Read handwriting: each page. A three-page letter uses three actions.
Count objects: each count.
Keep the layout (Word or Excel): each conversion.

Naming and sorting (Name and file with AI, Name and sort new scans and Name N existing documents with AI…) uses the separate naming limit, not your 20 actions.

A failed action is given back

If an AI action fails, for example because our AI provider didn’t answer, it doesn’t count against your limits. You can simply try again.

Step by step

See your usage

Account → AI helper → Usage shows today’s count, for example “6 of 20 AI actions used today”.
The Ask menu on a document shows the same line as its heading.
The Ask, Extract and Translate screens show a quiet line such as “12 AI actions left today”. It counts down from whichever is lower: what’s left today or what’s left this month.

Usage shows only on Pro, and only once Paperwise has heard from our server (it isn’t shown offline).

At the limit

When you reach a limit, Paperwise sends nothing and tells you plainly:

“You’ve used today’s 20 AI actions. They reset at midnight (UTC).”
“You’ve used this month’s 300 AI actions. They reset on” the date of the reset.
Rarely, “AI is paused for today. Try again tomorrow.” This appears when a daily cost budget is reached, either overall or for your subscription.

Everything that doesn’t use AI keeps working: scanning, on-device text, search, saved translations, saved Extract details and conversations you’ve already had.

When the naming limit is reached, naming pauses. Items still waiting are named after the reset, newest first; nothing is lost.

Free and Pro

AI is part of Pro only. On Free there’s no allowance and nothing is ever sent to AI. See Free and Pro and pricing.

Privacy

Privacy: To keep count, our server stores how many AI actions and namings were used per day and month, and an estimate of their cost, under a hashed identifier. It doesn’t store what the actions were about. These counts are kept for 35 days, also after you delete your account.

Your questions, documents and answers aren’t stored on our server. See What AI sees and keeps.

Tips

Check the Text view before using Read handwriting: if the on-device text is fine, you save an action per page.
Ask several things in one question when they’re related (“What’s the total and when is it due?”).
Suggested questions shown before you tap Suggest questions are free; they’re picked on your iPhone.

What if…

What if I’m told I’ve used my actions but the line said I had some left?

The line is refreshed when an AI screen opens and after each action, so it can be a step behind. Our server’s count is the one that decides. Wait for the reset shown in the message.

What if a large conversion used up more than I expected?

A “Keep the layout” conversion is one action, but besides the action limits there’s a daily cost cap that counts large jobs by their size. Very long conversions can reach it sooner.

What if new scans stopped being named?

You’ve probably reached 100 namings today. They resume after midnight (UTC).

What if Paperwise says “This document is too long for AI.”?

That’s a size limit on one request, not your allowance: the document is more than AI can take in one go, and nothing is counted. Split it (Edit → Split) and use AI on the part you need. See Split and merge.

Do the limits roll over?

No. Unused actions don’t carry over to the next day or month.