Usage Limits

Understanding compute hours, disk usage, and AI chat limits on qBraid Lab

qBraid Lab Platform V2 introduces usage limits to help you manage your resources effectively. These limits vary based on your subscription plan and can be monitored from your account dashboard.

Compute Hours

Each user is provided a set number of compute hours per month, which varies depending on your subscription plan. Compute hours track the time your Lab instances are actively running.

Compute hours are a unit of measure that combines the number of CPU cores used multiplied by the number of hours used. For example, running a 2-vCPU instance for 3 hours uses 6 CPU hours, and running an 8-vCPU instance for 2 hours uses 16 CPU hours.

How it works:

• Usage is tracked across all running Lab instances
• Compute hours reset at the end of each month
• Monthly allocations by plan:

Plan	Compute Hours/Month
Free	100 CPU hours
Standard	400 CPU hours
Pro	2000 CPU hours

Detailed statistics are available in your account dashboard under Account > Usage > Compute Settings. These include number of sessions opened in the last 30 days, daily session usage and total compute hours used.

Auto-switch to Credits

If your compute hours are exhausted before the month ends, you can enable automatic switching to qBraid credits:

1. Navigate to Account > Usage > Compute Settings
2. Enable the Auto-switch to credits option
3. Credits will be consumed automatically when compute hours run out

This ensures uninterrupted access to your Lab instances throughout the month. See Pricing for the per-minute credit rates when auto-switch is enabled.

Disk Usage

Users are allocated a limited amount of disk storage based on their subscription tier. It is the user’s responsibility to monitor their storage usage and ensure compliance with their assigned quota.

Plan	Disk Storage
Free	15 GB
Standard	50 GB
Pro	150 GB

Your disk usage includes all files, notebooks, environments, and data stored in your Lab instance. Monitor your disk usage from the account dashboard to ensure you stay within your allocation.

To do so, click Dashboard in the left sidebar and scroll to the Usage Overview section at the bottom of the page. For more details, go to Account > Usage in the left sidebar.

To check their current disk usage and quota from within qBraid Lab, users can use the Settings extension on qBraid Lab.

Exceeding Disk Usage Quotas

• If a user exceeds their allocated disk space, they will receive a notification prompting them to delete files to stay within their quota.
• If the user does not reduce their storage usage within the allotted time, their qBraid Lab session will be terminated.
• Upon logging back in, the user must reduce their disk usage before resuming services.
• This process will repeat until the user meets the disk usage quota.

Disk Usage Management

Your installed qBraid Lab environments often occupy the most disk space. To free up space, consider uninstalling any environments you no longer use.

To analyze your disk usage in detail, open the Terminal and run the gdu command:

gdu [flags] [directory_to_scan]

For more information on gdu, refer to the official documentation.

Once you’ve identified large or unwanted files and directories, you can delete them using the rm command in the Terminal:

rm -rf [directory_to_delete]

Alternatively, you can remove files and directories from the File Browser by right-clicking and selecting Delete.

On-Demand Instance Billing

On-demand instances (GPUs and high-spec CPUs) are billed per minute in credits, separate from your subscription compute hours.

• Running: Charged a compute rate (credits/min) plus a small storage fee. Rates vary by instance type — see pricing.
• Stopped: Charged a storage-only fee (credits/min) to preserve your disk and files. Much smaller than the running rate.
• Terminated: No further charges. The instance and its disk are permanently deleted.

Your credit balance determines how many concurrent on-demand instances you can run (up to 5). See On-Demand Instances for the full breakdown.

AI Chat Usage

Each user receives a monthly quota for AI Chat prompts, which varies by subscription plan. This quota covers interactions with qBraid’s AI assistant features.

Auto-switch to Credits: Similar to compute hours, you can enable automatic credit consumption when your AI chat quota is exhausted:

1. Navigate to Account > Usage > AI Chat Usage
2. Enable the Auto-switch to credits option
3. Credits will be used for additional AI chat prompts once your quota is exhausted

This feature ensures continuous access to AI assistance throughout the month, even after your base quota is used.

Monitoring Usage

All usage metrics can be monitored in real-time from your account dashboard. Navigate to Account > Usage to view detailed breakdowns of your compute hours, disk storage, and AI chat consumption.