Adaptive Compute Units (ACUs) measure the costs and resources consumed by apps that run on the Adaptive platform. Understanding ACUs helps you plan capacity, control cost, and decide when to upgrade.
Note: All limits, prices, and ACU formulas may change.
ACUs combine several kinds of usage:
Your app is actively working
1 ACU per minute
Short text (~1 ACU), image/audio (~10 ACUs)
~1-10 ACUs
Data uploaded, downloaded, or stored
1 ACU per 100 MB
Emails sent from your app
1 ACU per 10 emails
These values are approximate; the platform will refine them as the service evolves.
Every app has built-in access to adaptive's in-app AI agent to power any AI features. It can generate media, like text, images and audio. And, it can access current information on the internet.
When your app uses these AI features, we pay outside model providers for the work they do. To keep things simple for you, we convert those charges into ACUs automatically:
Both sides count
We add up the tokens your app sends to the model (the "prompt") and the tokens the model sends back.
Model prices vary
If a model costs twice as much per token as another, the same request will use roughly twice as many ACUs.
No math required
The conversion happens behind the scenes, so you can compare all AI usage with one easy-to-read number—ACUs.
Typical guideline:
Per app, per month
ACUs included
100
Pay-as-you-go overage
Not available
ACUs included
500
Pay-as-you-go overage
Not available
ACUs included
500
Pay-as-you-go overage
$1.00 / 100 ACUs
Note: The ACUs for each app are tracked separately. The ACUs for one app do not affect the ACUs for another.
Sign in at adaptive.ai and open the desired app
Choose Settings → Usage
Review the ACUs for the current month
Free and Creator-tier apps will be limited until you upgrade. Pro apps will also be limited unless you have opted into overage. If you have opted in, your app will continue running, and overage will be charged at the pay-as-you-go rate.
The tally resets on the first calendar day of each month.
Yes—if you are on the Pro tier, you can opt into pay-as-you-go overage. Once your included quota is exhausted, you will be charged for additional ACUs at the pay-as-you-go rate for your tier.
Questions about ACUs or billing? Contact Adaptive Support