How your Nelly allowance works
Nelly's AI features share one allowance with a daily and a monthly limit, both reset on the server's clock (UTC). The app shows your live count as you get close, and Pro raises the limits.
Everything Nelly writes for you comes from one shared allowance, counted in "AI creates". You have a daily allowance and a monthly one, and whichever runs out first pauses Nelly until it refills. The exact numbers can change over time, so the app always shows your live count rather than a fixed figure.
What uses one
Each of these uses one AI create:
- Creating a list with Create with Nelly.
- Each ask in More with Nelly.
- Each grouping in Smart Groups. Seeing the ways to split the list is free.
- Notes Nelly writes herself in Add details with Nelly, once per run however many items it covers. Artwork, look-ups, place photos and recipes Nelly has already written are free.
These never use one:
- An ask that fails, or where Nelly can't help ("Nelly can't look that up", "No natural groups found").
- Adding your own typed or pasted items with These look like your own… items.
- The quiet fill-in that completes a list's artwork and notes after Nelly creates it.
- Nelly working out where each item starts when you add several with Siri.
When it resets
Both allowances reset on the server's clock, which runs on UTC (the same time everywhere in the world), not your phone's:
- Daily: at midnight UTC. For most people that isn't their midnight: it's the evening in New York and mid-morning in Sydney.
- Monthly: at midnight UTC on the first of each month.
Changing your phone's time zone doesn't change when you get more.
What you'll see as you get close
- On Create with Nelly, the count stays out of the way until you're running low. Then a row appears under the field saying how many you have left today or this month. When you're out, it says Daily AI limit reached or Monthly AI limit reached.
- In More with Nelly and Smart Groups, and in Add details with Nelly when Notes is on, the sheet shows how many you have left today before you spend one.
On the free plan, the row has an Upgrade button, and when you're out, Create my list and Smart Groups open the Pro upgrade screen instead. On Pro, you get a short message saying you've reached the limit.
FAQ
Why does it say I'm out when it's still today where I live?
The daily allowance follows UTC, not your time zone, so "today" for Nelly may have started or ended hours before yours.
Do Pro and free share the same features?
Yes. Every Nelly feature is on both plans. Pro gives you more room to use them. See What's free and what Pro adds.
Does scanning or pasting a list use my allowance?
No. Scanning a paper list and pasting in items you already have don't use your Nelly allowance.