What to Do When You Hit Your Usage Limit

Reaching your usage limit means you've consumed your plan's credit allocation for the current 4-hour session. You have two options: wait for the automatic reset or upgrade your plan for immediate access with higher limits.

Understanding the Limit Message

When you hit your limit, ISMS Copilot displays a message like:

"You've reached your usage limit for this session. Your limit will reset at 2:30 PM, or upgrade for higher limits."

This tells you:

• You've used your current allocation for this 4-hour window

• Exact reset time when you'll get fresh credits (e.g., 2:30 PM)

• Option to upgrade for immediate access with higher session limits

Option 1: Wait for the Reset

Your usage limit resets automatically every 4 hours. You don't need to do anything—just wait until the time shown in the limit message.

What happens at reset:

• Your credit allocation refreshes to your plan's full amount

• You can resume sending messages immediately

• The 4-hour window starts again from that point

• No action required—just refresh the page if you're already on it

Best for:

• Non-urgent compliance work

• Users on the Free plan evaluating the platform

• Light usage patterns where 4-hour windows are sufficient

• Budget-conscious users who can plan work around reset times

Option 2: Upgrade Your Plan

Upgrading gives you immediate access with significantly higher credit allocation per 4-hour session. Most active compliance users find the Plus plan eliminates limit concerns entirely.

How to Upgrade

1. Click the "Upgrade your plan" button (top right, with star icon) or click the upgrade link in the limit message

2. Review Plus plan features and pricing

3. Choose your billing cycle:

   • Monthly: $24/month

   • Annual: $240/year (2 months free)

4. Complete payment through Stripe

5. Your new limits apply immediately after successful payment

What You Get with Plus

• Significantly higher credit allocation per 4-hour session—typically enough for dozens of messages, even in longer conversations

• Increased file upload quota for document analysis

• Priority support with faster response times

• Custom data retention control (1 day to 7 years)

• Advanced document generation capabilities

When to Consider Upgrading

Upgrade if you:

• Hit your limit more than once per week

• Are working on active compliance projects (audits, certifications, implementations)

• Need to analyze multiple documents or generate policies regularly

• Manage multiple clients or projects as a consultant

• Can't plan compliance work around 4-hour reset windows

• Value time over cost (e.g., waiting 2 hours costs more than $20/month in billable time)

See complete plan comparison at Subscription Plans and Pricing.

Before Your Next Session: Optimize Usage

Whether you wait for reset or upgrade, these strategies help you avoid hitting limits unexpectedly:

1. Start Fresh Conversations More Often

Long conversation threads consume significantly more credits per message. If your conversation has 20+ messages, start a new one for your next task—even if it's related.

Why this matters: A message in a 50-message thread can use 5-10x more credits than the same message in a fresh conversation.

2. Upload Files in New Conversations

Large document uploads consume extra credits, especially in long threads. Start a fresh conversation when uploading PDFs or spreadsheets for analysis.

3. Ask Complete Questions Upfront

Instead of spreading context across multiple messages:

❌ Inefficient:

• "I need help with access control"

• "It's for ISO 27001"

• "We're a 50-person company"

• "In the healthcare industry"

✅ Efficient:

• "Create an ISO 27001 access control policy for a 50-person healthcare SaaS company"

One complete message uses far fewer credits than four back-and-forth messages.

4. Use Workspaces to Organize

Don't try to manage multiple clients or projects in one long conversation thread. Create separate Workspaces with focused conversations for each task.

See Managing Multi-Client Projects with Workspaces for organization strategies.

5. Review Your Conversation Patterns

If you hit limits frequently, check whether you:

• Have conversations with 30+ messages (start fresh more often)

• Combine multiple unrelated questions in one thread (separate them)

• Upload multiple large files in the same conversation (split across conversations)

• Continue very old conversations from before the usage system (start new ones)

See Managing Long Conversations and Usage for detailed best practices.

Comparing Your Options

If Limits Still Seem Wrong

After upgrading or optimizing your conversation habits, if you still hit limits unexpectedly, contact support. This could indicate:

• An issue with your account's credit calculation

• Very old conversations consuming credits faster (requires starting fresh)

• Usage patterns that need a higher tier (Pro Unlimited when available)

• A technical issue worth investigating

Plan for Your Next Session

If staying on Free plan:

• Keep conversations under 15 messages

• Start fresh conversations for each new compliance task

• Upload files in new threads

• Plan work in chunks that fit within 4-hour windows

If upgrading to Plus:

• You'll still benefit from conversation management best practices

• But you'll have far more flexibility for longer threads and complex tasks

• Most Plus users only think about limits during exceptionally heavy usage days

Related Resources

• Understanding Usage Limits - How the credit system works

• Managing Long Conversations and Usage - Maximize efficiency

• Subscription Plans and Pricing - Full plan comparison

• Troubleshooting Common Issues - Other common errors and solutions