Budget Mode: Control AI Costs Without Limiting Capability

Today we're introducing Budget Mode—a new way to manage AI costs in Lexic that gives teams control without taking away features.

The Problem We're Solving

AI-powered features are transformative, but they come with real costs. For team leaders, this creates a dilemma:

• Too restrictive: Disable AI features to control costs, but lose the productivity benefits
• Too permissive: Enable everything and risk surprise bills when someone processes a massive document library

Neither option is great. Budget Mode gives you a third path.

How Budget Mode Works

Budget Mode lets you set word processing limits at the workspace or user level. Here's the key insight: **users keep full access to all features**. They just have visibility into their allocation.

Setting Budgets

Workspace admins can configure:

• Monthly word limits: Per user or for the entire workspace
• Rollover rules: Whether unused words carry forward
• Alert thresholds: Notifications at 50%, 75%, 90% usage

User Experience

From the user's perspective, nothing is disabled. They see:

• Current usage in their dashboard
• Cost previews before any AI operation
• Clear indication when approaching their limit

When a user hits their limit, they can still work—they just can't run additional AI operations until the next period or until an admin adjusts their allocation.

Why This Approach

We considered several models before landing on Budget Mode:

**Feature gating** (rejected): Disabling features based on tier felt like artificial limitation. Every Lexic user should have access to the full platform.

**Post-hoc billing** (rejected): Sending surprise bills after the fact creates anxiety and erodes trust. Users should know costs before they incur them.

**Pre-approval workflows** (rejected): Requiring manager approval for AI operations would kill the spontaneous, exploratory use that makes AI tools valuable.

Budget Mode threads the needle: cost control without feature limitations, predictability without friction.

Use Cases

Small Teams

A five-person startup sets a workspace budget of 500,000 words/month—enough for normal use with headroom for spikes. The founder gets alerts if usage approaches the limit.

Enterprise Departments

A 50-person department allocates 20,000 words/user/month. Heavy users can request increases; the system tracks patterns to inform future allocations.

Educational Settings

A university gives students 10,000 words/month for a course. Students learn to use AI assistance strategically, understanding the real costs of the technology.

Personal Use

Individual users can set self-imposed budgets to manage their own spending, with personal dashboards showing usage trends.

Cost Transparency Remains Core

Budget Mode builds on our commitment to cost transparency. You still see:

• Word counts before every AI operation
• Real-time usage tracking
• Detailed logs of all processing

The budget is an additional layer of control, not a replacement for transparency.

Getting Started

Budget Mode is available now for all workspace plans. To enable it:

1. Go to Workspace Settings > Usage & Billing
2. Enable Budget Mode
3. Set your monthly allocation
4. Configure alerts and rollover as desired

Individual users can also set personal budgets in their account settings.

What's Next

We're continuing to develop Budget Mode based on user feedback. On our roadmap:

• Budget pools: Share allocations across teams with flexible draw-down
• Usage analytics: Deeper insights into what's driving AI consumption
• Smart suggestions: Recommendations for optimal budget levels based on usage patterns

Control Meets Capability

AI tools shouldn't require a leap of faith on costs. With Budget Mode, you get the full power of Lexic's AI features with the cost control your organization needs.

Questions about Budget Mode? Reach out to our team—we'd love to hear how you're using it.