Notion has introduced a credit system for its AI features that gives each Business and Enterprise seat a fixed monthly allowance split into two pools. The change, announced October 19 in a post by co-founder Akshay Kothari, is live for new customers now, and existing customers move over on November 2.
Under the new system, each Business and Enterprise seat includes 1,500 Standard credits and 500 Select credits a month. Standard credits cover work where Notion picks the model, mainly everyday use through its Auto model router. Select credits cover work where the user picks the model, and running Custom Agents. Notion’s release notes say all AI usage is being combined under the new system, so Notion Agent, Custom Agents and many outside AI tools draw from one pool.
Team Custom Agents use Select credits by default, even when other people use them, though an admin can instead fund them with Notion credits bought for the workspace. Purchased credits can also cover Custom Agents shared with the workspace, high-credit-consumption models such as Fable and Astra, and anything beyond the included allowance. The post does not list a price for additional credits. Users can try Custom Agents with their monthly Select credits without buying credits first.
Notion estimates that “the vast majority of users are unlikely to run out of monthly credits.” According to the post’s FAQ, a user who needs more after choosing models directly can ask an admin to buy workspace credits or switch back to Auto. Customers whose contracts have not yet renewed move on November 2 with the same allowances as everyone else, and at renewal credits are set by plan, with account teams walking customers through the details.
A cheaper router and longer-running agents
Notion paired the credit change with efficiency claims. The company says Auto delivered results similar to Opus 5.5 and Astra at about 90% lower average cost across more than 20 common use cases, and that credits go “about 10× further” as a result. When a model is not making progress on a task, Auto re-routes it to another model.
Notion also says it rebuilt its agents. The blog post says a single task can now run for more than 24 hours, up from five minutes, while the release notes say agents can work on tasks for up to 24 hours. Agents can connect to hundreds of tools through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and connectors, up from a few dozen earlier this summer. In Notion’s testing, Custom Agent runs cost about 30% less, and agents run up to 50% faster on web and mobile. Seven new models were added in the past month, the post says.
Customers can also connect a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription and use it in their personal Notion Agent instead of drawing on Standard and Select credits; the post says this works in personal Notion Agent first, not Custom Agents. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) access is in private alpha for Enterprise customers.
Admin controls
Notion says an AI Command Center is coming “soon” to consolidate AI settings that were previously spread across several places. Admins will be able to see credit usage by member, feature and agent, get alerts as the workspace nears its limit, set spending limits for members and agents, choose which models members can use, and control who can create, pause or archive Custom Agents. Members will be able to see how many included credits they have used and what each of their agents spends.
Why it matters
For small and mid-sized teams on Business plans, the change turns AI use into a metered resource with a visible allowance per seat. Because choosing a model and running Custom Agents draw on the smaller 500-credit Select pool, those are the uses where a workspace is most exposed to a limit and to admin-purchased credits. Everyday work routed through Auto draws on the larger Standard pool.
The design also puts more decisions in admins’ hands. Who can create agents, which models are allowed and how much each member or agent may spend become workspace settings once the Command Center arrives, and team agents draw on Select credits by default unless an admin funds them with purchased credits.
What to watch
Existing workspaces switch on November 2, and Notion says admins will receive an email with details. The AI Command Center has no launch date in the post. Notion has not said how many credits typical tasks consume, so the practical reach of the allowance will depend on each team’s mix of Auto, chosen models and agents.
The caveats
The cost, speed and reliability figures are Notion’s own claims from its testing and model comparisons. The blog post and release notes differ slightly on maximum agent run time. The post does not address how Free and Plus plans are treated under the new system.
