The free model
The free model answers at no charge, with reasoning off, so Assistants keep answering when paid usage runs out or is capped. WebWorks pays for these answers, up to a daily limit for each organization.
When answers run on the free model
Reason | Applies to | Ends |
|---|---|---|
The organization's included allowance and purchased credits are used up | Every Assistant in the organization: in deployment, and in Preview once the day's preview allowance is used too | When credits are added, a plan starts, or the included allowance resets |
An Assistant reaches its daily budget with Keep answering on the free model chosen | That Assistant's answers to visitors | At 00:00 UTC |
The Assistant's Model is the free option, listed with (free) after its name | That Assistant, in deployment and in Preview | When you choose another model |
See Cap an Assistant's daily spend and Models and reasoning.
How free answers differ
A free answer runs with reasoning off, reads fewer passages from the Knowledge Base, and has a shorter maximum length. It costs nothing, uses none of the daily preview allowance, and doesn't count toward a daily budget. Visitors see no notice. In Preview, a notice on the Preview tab says the answer ran on the free model and why. View all transactions lists each free answer as Free model with its reason, at zero.
When credits run out or an Assistant reaches its budget, the billing email is told the first time each UTC day that the Assistant gives a visitor a free answer. Choosing the free option sends no email.
The daily free-answer limit
Each organization can give visitors a limited number of free answers per UTC day, across all its Assistants and all three reasons. Past the limit, visitors are told the Assistant is temporarily unavailable until 00:00 UTC. Preview answers don't count toward it. The app doesn't show the limit. See Messages visitors see.
Where it shows
Place | Shows |
|---|---|
Credit Balance on Settings > Billing | Free model active — add credits or upgrade for smart-model answers. |
Settings > Plans | Your assistants are answering on the free model. |
The Assistant's header | Free model active |
All three appear once the organization's included allowance and purchased credits can no longer pay for a typical answer, and clear when credits are added. An Assistant on the free model because of its budget or its model choice doesn't show them.