Every AI feature in Tern draws from one shared monthly usage allowance. This article explains how that allowance works and what drives it, so you can make the most of it.

Every AI feature in Tern draws from one shared monthly allowance. These are the features that use AI:

These are the same categories you see when you open the usage breakdown in your Subscription settings.

Your Tern plan includes one monthly AI usage allowance shared across every AI feature, including Notetaker. Every AI action you take, from importing an itinerary to categorizing an email to recording a meeting, draws from the same shared allowance.

You can see where you stand any time on the Plan & Usage section in your subscription settings. Your combined AI usage shows as a percentage progress bar.

A few things to know:

A request uses more when the AI has to do more. Three things matter most:

How much it creates. Generating new content is the biggest driver. Asking the AI to write a long destination guide, draft full client emails, or create a complete trip from scratch uses more than reading something and pulling out a few details.

How much it reads. Long documents take more to process than short ones. A 14-day itinerary PDF is heavier than a single hotel confirmation.

How much it has to search or figure out. A vague request means the AI does extra work to search, browse, and fill in gaps. A specific request points it straight at the answer.

This is also why a back-and-forth chat adds up: each message re-reads the whole conversation and writes a new response.

Note: chatting with support (Fin) does not count towards your AI usage.

Knowing which actions are heavier helps you understand your usage, not avoid features. Here's roughly how they compare per use.

Heavier doesn't mean "avoid." Some of the most valuable things you can do, like having AI review a full trip for errors and inconsistencies, use more because they do more, and they're often the best use of your allowance. The goal is to understand the tradeoff, then choose what's worth it to you.

Start in AI Chat. AI Chat is the most flexible way to work. You can build trips, add and edit activities, create and update contacts, search cruises and cabins, and ask questions, all in one place.

Be specific about what you want. A clear, detailed prompt points the AI straight at the answer, so it does less searching and guessing and gets it right the first time. Include the details that matter, like dates, names, tone, and format.

Ask for what you need, not everything. Because writing and creating content is the biggest driver of usage, asking for the specific section or change you need uses less than having the AI generate or regenerate a full document each time. If you only need one paragraph rewritten, ask for that paragraph.

Import when you already have the document. If a supplier sends you a full itinerary or confirmation, importing it builds the whole trip in one action. Re-describing the same trip in chat takes several messages. Use chat to build from scratch, make changes, and handle anything you can't simply hand over as a file.

Start a fresh chat for a new task. Each message re-reads the whole conversation, so a long chat makes every new message heavier. When you move to an unrelated task, starting a new chat keeps things efficient. Stay in the same chat while you're working on one trip or topic, so you don't have to re-explain the context.

Edit small things directly or in chat. To change one description or detail, you can edit it by hand or ask AI Chat to update that one item, rather than re-running a full import that reprocesses the entire trip.

Use Reporting for big data questions. For totals and aggregations, like how much commission you booked last quarter, Custom Reporting is built for that and doesn't draw from your AI allowance. Custom Reporting is part of Tern Pro.

Email triage runs in the background. It reads incoming mail and labels booking-related messages automatically, and it counts toward your AI usage. It's light per email, but a busy inbox adds up over a month. You can turn it off in your settings if you don't want it.

Notetaker shares your AI allowance. Notetaker usage now draws from the same monthly allowance as other AI features, so there is no separate hours pool.

Generated content can be reused. Destination guides and packing lists draw from your allowance each time you create one. Saving and adapting the ones you make is a quick way to get more value from each.

Your base plan is built to cover everyday work, and most advisors stay comfortably within it. Everything draws from one shared allowance, so you can mix and match. In a typical month, base usage covers roughly any one of these. These estimates may change as we refine the AI tools and are based on usage data as of June 1, 2026.

Notetaker also draws from this same shared allowance, so you can mix Notetaker and other AI features however suits your month.

Most advisors never come close to the limit. If you regularly build trips from long documents or work in chat throughout the day, Tern Pro gives you a larger allowance.

Understanding usage is about making informed choices, not using AI less. The most successful advisors lean on AI heavily, because it saves them real time.

If you regularly reach 75%, 90%, or your full limit, that's usually a sign your plan should grow, not that you should cut back.