TL;DR: Notion is changing how AI is metered on Business and Enterprise plans. Each member now gets 1,500 Standard credits a month for work where Notion picks the model, and 500 Select credits for work where you pick the model or run your own Custom Agents. The two allowances can’t be pooled, moved between members or rolled over. Existing workspaces switch on November 2, 2026. When an allowance runs out, that work pauses unless an admin allows paid workspace credits, which are off by default. Check your team’s usage and decide on that setting before November 2.

What happened

Notion is changing how AI is metered on its Business and Enterprise plans. In a post published October 19, 2026, co-founder Akshay Kothari announced a new credit system alongside an upgraded model router called Auto and rebuilt agents.

Each member now gets two separate monthly allowances:

  • 1,500 Standard credits for work where Notion picks the model (Auto). That covers Notion Agent on Auto, writing and translation, AI blocks, formulas and inline editing.
  • 500 Select credits for work where you pick the model yourself, or for Custom Agents you set up for your own use.

New Business and Enterprise workspaces are on the new system from October 19. Existing workspaces switch on November 2, 2026, and Notion says admins will get an email with the details. Notion’s help center notes your included amount “may vary depending on your plan and purchase arrangement,” so check your own number under Settings > Notion AI > Usage.

Why it matters

Three details matter more than the headline numbers.

Work pauses when an allowance runs out. Per Notion’s help center, once a member uses up their Standard or Select credits, “impacted work will pause until your credits reset,” unless an admin has turned on paid workspace credits. That setting is off by default.

The two allowances don’t mix. Standard and Select credits are separate and per person. You can’t pool them across the team, move them between members, or roll unused credits into next month. Leftover Select credits won’t cover Standard work, and the reverse. If Select runs out, Notion suggests switching Notion Agent back to Auto to keep going on Standard.

Picking a model costs far more. Notion’s own estimates put a simple task, like polishing an email, at about 5 credits on Auto versus about 50 on Opus 5.5. A medium task is about 10 versus 85, and a complex one about 25 versus 150. By our math, 1,500 Standard credits is roughly 300 simple tasks on Auto, while 500 Select credits is roughly 10 simple tasks if you pick Opus 5.5 every time. Notion says “the vast majority of users are unlikely to run out of credits,” and those figures are its estimates, not guarantees; real use depends on the size of the page or thread.

Some usage skips your seat allowance and goes straight to the workspace’s paid Notion credits: high-consumption models not included in your plan, such as Fable and Astra, Custom Agents funded by the workspace, and running an agent through the Notion API or a connected app. Paid Notion credits cost $10 per 1,000 on monthly plans or $13 per 1,000 on annual plans, according to Notion’s help center. That works out to about a cent per credit on monthly billing, so by our math one complex task on Opus 5.5 (about 150 credits, by Notion’s estimate) would cost about $1.50 once included credits are gone.

One more date to note: AI Meeting Notes runs on Auto and starts drawing on Standard credits on December 1, 2026, at about 10 credits per one-hour meeting, by Notion’s estimate.

What to do

  1. Check usage before November 2. Each member can check their allowance under Settings > Notion AI > Usage. Ask your heaviest AI users to look first.
  2. Default everyone to Auto. Notion’s FAQ recommends Auto for writing, summarizing and asking questions. Save manual model picks for work that really needs them.
  3. Decide on the overflow switch. In Settings > Notion AI, admins can turn on “Allow workspace to use Notion credits after AI limit is reached.” Leave it off if a pause is acceptable and you don’t want to buy credits. Turn it on if a stalled agent would hurt more than the bill, and track spend per member under Settings > Access & billing > Notion credits.
  4. List your Custom Agents. A Custom Agent you set up uses your Select credits, even when you share it with your team. If one runs often for the whole team, ask an admin to fund it with workspace credits so it doesn’t drain one person’s allowance.
  5. Use AI you already pay for. Notion says you can connect a ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Go account to your personal Notion Agent and use it instead of Standard and Select credits. It doesn’t cover Custom Agents yet.
  6. Plan for December 1. If your team records a lot of meetings, budget for Meeting Notes drawing on Standard credits from that date.
  7. Watch for the admin dashboard. Notion says a new AI Command Center with usage dashboards, spending limits and agent governance is coming “soon.” It isn’t live yet, so don’t plan around it.

If the new limits don’t fit a small team’s budget, compare other note and wiki tools before your renewal. Free options include AppFlowy and Obsidian, or you can stay on Notion with Auto as the default. If you’re weighing whether to let AI spend past a limit, our guide to hard spending limits for AI agents covers how other tools handle caps.

Sources & method

Sources

Method. Last checked October 20, 2026. Credit amounts, dates, prices, settings and quotes come from Notion’s blog post and help center. Per-task credit figures are Notion’s estimates; the task counts and dollar figures are our arithmetic from them. We haven’t tested the new credit system ourselves. No affiliate links on this page. How we work.

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