Docs Using Nota
API usage and budget
See estimated model costs, set monthly budgets, and choose warnings, local fallback or pausing cloud models.
Home's API usage card estimates what the selected cloud models cost from the audio minutes and AI tokens Nota recorded. A monthly budget adds warnings and a choice of what Nota does when the estimate reaches your limit.
Read the estimate
Choose today, 7 days, 30 days, 6 months, all time or another available period in the card. Each model row shows its measured amount and estimated cost; the total adds them. The period you view is separate from the calendar month used for the budget.
Providers report usage, while Nota estimates cost from list prices. Discounts, free tiers, taxes, unpriced models and usage outside Nota can make the provider's bill different. Local processing has no provider API fee, though it still uses your Mac's resources.
Set a monthly budget
- Click Set budget in the API usage card, or open Settings › API Budget.
- Enable Monthly API budget.
- Enter an amount in US dollars under All cloud models. You can also add a separate limit for an individual provider.
- Choose When the budget is reached.
Nota can warn at 80% and when the estimated budget is reached. The budget starts again on the first day of the next calendar month.
Choose the behaviour at the limit
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Just warn me | Shows the notice; cloud processing can continue. |
| Switch to a local model until next month | Uses an eligible downloaded local speech model instead. Where supported, local Ollama can replace cloud rewrite; otherwise cloud AI cleanup can be skipped. |
| Pause cloud models | Refuses affected cloud dictation starts and skips affected cloud AI steps until the budget resets or you change the setting. |
Download a suitable local speech model before relying on the local switch. The model needs to support your language. Nota does not change your provider account's spending limit.
What the limit does not guarantee
This is a guard based on Nota's tracked estimates, not a hard cap on your provider's bill. A request already in progress may finish, and other software using the same key is outside Nota's control. Set a provider-side limit too if you need an account-wide ceiling.
The estimate may not include every Notebook AI request. Check your provider’s usage for cloud notes. Notebook Tidy and automatic titles have their own AI choice. See Notebook.