Per-user daily credit limits let administrators and alternative administrators cap how much Copilot usage any single user can drive in a day. This article explains how limits work, how to set them, what users see when they hit the cap, and how to reconcile usage to your account’s billing.
Feature availability: Per-user daily credit limits are planned for a future release. Until then, Copilot consumption is governed at the account level only. This article describes the feature as it will be available at launch. Availability dates are TBD. Contact your account team for the latest status.
Why daily limits exist
Copilot runs on a credit-based consumption model. A single prompt consumes some number of credits based on the prompt, the project context, and the response. Most prompts are low cost; some, particularly large reverse engineering runs or bulk governance actions on big projects, can consume significantly more credits in a single call.
Without per-user limits, one user running many heavy prompts could consume a disproportionate share of the account’s daily budget. Daily limits give administrators a way to protect the shared budget without having to monitor usage manually.
How limits work
- Limits are set per user in credits per day.
- Credits reset at 00:00 UTC every day. A user who hits their limit stops consuming credits for the rest of that day and resumes the next day.
- Limits are enforced by Copilot before a prompt is processed. A prompt that would exceed the limit is blocked; the user sees a clear message and the prompt is not charged.
- Limits apply only to the user on whose behalf the prompt is made. A bulk governance action that a single user kicks off counts against that user’s limit.
- Read-only questions consume credits too, though at a lower rate than structural changes. The limit applies uniformly regardless of prompt type.
Setting a per-user limit
- Open Account Settings from the top-right user menu.
- Navigate to AI Copilot settings.
- Scroll to User Credit Limits.
- For each user, enter a daily credit cap in the field next to their name. Leave blank for users you don’t want to cap.
- Click Save. Changes take effect within a few minutes.
Default behavior: Users without an explicit cap are governed only by the account-level budget. You can set a default cap for all users and then override for specific users who need more.
What users see when they hit the limit
When a user submits a prompt that would exceed their daily credit limit:
- The prompt is blocked immediately. It does not partially execute.
- The Copilot panel displays a message: “You’ve reached your daily Copilot limit. Your access resets at 00:00 UTC. Contact your administrator if you need more credits today.”
- The user can still view prior responses in conversation history (if enabled).
- Read-only navigation around the project is unaffected.
Reconciling usage to billing
Usage data is available in two places:
- Real-time dashboard. Account Settings > AI Copilot > Usage Dashboard shows current-day usage per user and account totals. This is useful for monitoring mid-month trends and spotting outliers.
- Monthly invoice detail. Your monthly SqlDBM invoice includes Copilot credit consumption, broken out per user when per-user limits are configured. This is the billing-of-record source.
If you see a user consistently hitting their limit, that’s usually a signal that their cap is too low for their workflow. Review their usage pattern and adjust.
Choosing initial limits
If you’re setting limits for the first time, a few patterns work well:
- Start loose, then tighten. Set a generous cap initially. Review usage after two weeks. Tighten caps for users whose actual consumption is well below the cap.
- Role-based tiers. Give heavy-use roles (architects, governance leads) higher caps than read-only consumers. A 4:1 ratio between heavy and light users is a reasonable starting point.
- Leave headroom for bulk operations. Users who occasionally run big reverse engineering or bulk governance workflows need enough headroom to complete those operations in one go. Caps set below a typical bulk run produce frustrating cliff-edge experiences.
Related articles
- Enabling Copilot for your account and users
- AI Security and Data Privacy
- Bring Your Own Key for Copilot