Compute Usage
Some work is too heavy for a browser and runs on Conspecta's servers instead. That work is tracked as compute usage. Each plan includes a monthly allowance, and data exports are always free.
How Compute Usage Works
Compute usage draws from two buckets:
- Included usage comes with your plan and resets on a fixed date each billing period
- Additional usage is a top-up your team has bought separately. It never expires and is only used once your included usage is used up. It appears in the app as the Additional row
Usage is pooled at the team level. Every project in a team draws from the same monthly allowance, and every team member contributes to it.
What Uses Compute
Two workspaces consume usage. In Imaging it's the one part that needs a neural network: running AI detection on your images. It's covered in Image analysis compute.
In Cytometry it's only a run you hand to a server. Clustering and dimensionality reduction carry a Compute Location setting, and choosing Server uses 1, or 5 for the two heaviest algorithms (DBSCAN and Graph clustering). The size of the file doesn't change it. An AI assistant can start that same run on one file, at the same usage. Counting populations for an AI assistant uses one per file; applying a gating strategy is free. Everything else, including gating, compensation, statistics, plotting, and any run left on Local, uses nothing. See Flow cytometry compute.
Usage scales with the job. Detecting objects in one image is the smallest unit of work there is, and a run across a large image set is much larger. Detection runs and server-side flow runs both show their estimated usage before you commit.
Exports Are Always Free
Every export (project data, notebook PDFs, raw images, FCS files, Excel tables) is free. You should never feel penalized for getting your data out of Conspecta. Exports do appear in the Compute Jobs list so you can track their progress, but they don't count toward your usage.
Checking Your Usage
- Click your profile in the top corner, or open Settings (
Cmd/Ctrl + ,) - Go to the Usage tab
- If you belong to more than one team, pick the team you want to inspect
You'll see your Compute usage, which shows:
- A Subscription row with the reset date, used/total, a progress bar, and how much remains
- An Additional row, if your team has any additional usage still available
- A colored warning if you're close to using up this month's usage, or have used all of it
Warning Colors
The progress bar shifts color as your monthly usage fills up:
- Green below 75%
- Yellow between 75% and 90%
- Red at 90% and above
Once you cross 80%, a warning chip appears telling you how much of this month's usage you've used.
What Happens When You Run Out
When this month's included usage is used up, the Usage tab shows:
This month's usage is used up. Runs now use your additional usage.
If your team has additional usage, it's used next, automatically and silently, with no second confirmation. Nothing is blocked while any of it remains.
Only when both are empty do compute jobs stop accepting new work, and the Usage tab says so plainly:
You've used all of your available usage.
Exports, project navigation, editing, and every non-compute feature continue to work normally.
Failed and Cancelled Jobs
If a compute job fails because of a server error or an infrastructure problem, its usage is returned to your team automatically. The refund appears in your remaining usage without you asking for it, and the job stays in the Compute Jobs list marked Failed with its usage shown as Refunded.
Cancelling works the same way for a job that hasn't started yet. Once a job has been picked up and is actually running, cancelling stops it but doesn't refund it, because the machine time was already spent.
Counting populations settles file by file. If a count runs out of time partway through, only the files whose numbers came back use your team's usage. The rest returns automatically, and the result names each file the run never reached, so you can run those again on their own.
A job that completes still counts even if the result isn't what you hoped for, such as a detection run that finds less than you expected. That's an outcome of the data and the settings rather than a platform failure.
Compute Jobs
Under the usage bar, expand Compute Jobs to see every job your team has run recently: detection, exports, and more. Each row shows the user, project, job type, start time, duration, status, and usage.
- Completed jobs show the actual usage
- Failed jobs show Refunded
- Exports always show 0 because they're free
Click Export CSV to download the full job history for your team. It's useful for tracking usage over time or attributing it to a particular member.
Team Limits
The monthly usage for each team is set by your plan. If your team is running low on compute before the period resets:
- Check the Compute Jobs list to identify which jobs are using the most
- Talk to your team owner about upgrading the plan or purchasing additional usage
- For usage limits by plan, see Pricing