Alation Consumption Unit (ACU) Usage¶

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

An Alation Consumption Unit (ACU) is Alation’s single currency for measuring how you use its AI-powered products. Instead of buying seats, per-table subscriptions, or separate product tiers, you purchase a pool of ACUs. Every action you take across Alation’s four consumption-priced products draws from that one shared pool.

Only actions that deliver AI-generated value to your organization are metered. Passive activities, such as browsing, searching, reading, and manual edits, are always free.

AI-generated value is calculated as leveraging AI to deliver any output. For example, using AI to automatically create a column description based on its title. Since generating an output from AI consumes tokens, we will meter this action and charge based on the number of tokens consumed in terms of Alation Consumption Units (ACUs).

Previously, each Alation product was priced independently, which created procurement and flexibility challenges. Adding a second product meant a new negotiation and budget request, and unused capacity on one product could not be applied elsewhere. The ACU model solves this by allowing one flexible pool to fund all in-scope products. Capacity flows freely where your team actually uses it, and you are charged only for the AI-generated value your team receives.

The table below shows exactly what is and is not metered.

Products in Scope and Metering Rates¶

The ACU model currently applies to four Alation products. The products and their metered rates are:

ACU Rates by Job and Product¶
Job	Products	Unit of Measure	ACU Rate
Curate	Curation Automation	Per AI field write	0.05
Validate	Data Quality	Per check run	0.075
Consume — Chat	Data Product Marketplace Chat / API	Per message	0.50
Consume — Agent	Agent Studio	Per call / tool invocation	0.25

Metered Action Details¶

A metered action occurs when the system actively leverages an AI model or executes a paid compute process to generate an output. Specifically:

Curation Automation: An action is metered each time the AI agent successfully generates and writes a value to a catalog field (an “AI field write”).
Data Quality: An action is metered each time a Data Quality check run is executed.
Data Product Marketplace Chat / API: An action is metered for each user prompt or message processed by the conversational interface or corresponding API.
Agent Studio: An action is metered for each distinct LLM call or tool invocation triggered by an agent during a workflow.

Access the ACU Dashboard Page¶

You can track your consumption units through the Consumption Dashboard. Follow these steps:

Open the Admin Settings page.
Under User Management, select Consumption Dashboard.

The screenshot below shows the ACU Usage dashboard with a comprehensive view of an organization’s ACU consumption across products and over time.

ACU Usage Overview¶

Note

ACU usage metrics are not real-time. The usage data is typically refreshed once a day alongside your daily ETL run for Alation Analytics.

The ACU Usage overview page displays several sections to help you understand your organization’s ACU consumption. Users with the Server Admin or Catalog Admin role can view ACU (Alation Consumption Units) usage on the ACU Usage page. This section lets you monitor ACU consumption across products and track usage patterns over time.

The top of the page displays summary metrics, including:

Total pool: Displays the total allocated ACUs for the contract term. Paid ACU packs are available in four tiers: Starter (60,000 ACUs), Growth (120,000 ACUs), Scale (240,000 ACUs), and Enterprise (480,000 ACUs).
Consumed to date: Displays the ACUs consumed so far with the percentage of your annual pool used.
- Free pool: Displays the free ACUs available. Alation checks your free credits first; once exhausted, your paid pool is used. Historically, this also represents ACUs deducted for Curation Automation usage before transitioning to the current licensing model.
  
  Note
  
  Free ACUs are provisioned strictly at the account level, not at the individual user level.
- Paid pool: Displays the purchased pool balance.
Remaining: Displays the available ACUs upon usage with the percentage remaining.

Consumption Unit Usage Over Time¶

The Consumption Unit Usage Over Time chart displays monthly ACU consumption trends for the product, helping you identify usage patterns and trends. Each product is shown in a different color in the stacked bar chart.

Product Usage Summary¶

The Product Usage Summary table lists all products with their ACU metrics.

Product: Lists all the applicable products: Curation Automation, Data Quality, Agent Studio, and Data Products.
ACU consumed: Total ACUs consumed by the product during the contract term.
Pool share: The percentage of the total ACU pool consumed by this product.
Volume This Term: The total metered actions for each product.

Usage Alerts and Limits¶

Alation uses a tiered notification and enforcement model to ensure you are never surprised by pool exhaustion.

Notification Banners¶

Alation displays notification banners at the product level when ACU consumption reaches certain thresholds. Banner visibility depends on user roles:

80% consumption banner: An informational banner appears when ACU consumption reaches 80% of your pool. Only Server Admins and Catalog Admins see this banner, and it can be dismissed.
90% consumption banner: A warning banner appears when consumption reaches 90% of your pool. Only Server Admins and Catalog Admins see this banner, and it can be dismissed.
Exhausted banner: A critical banner appears when ACUs are fully exhausted. All users see this banner.

The exhausted banner cannot be dismissed and remains visible until the consumption issue is resolved.

Feature Limitations When ACU is Exhausted¶

When ACUs are fully exhausted, you can still navigate the product.

You can access existing configurations, but Alation disables new metered actions to prevent further consumption.
Affected buttons appear grayed out with tooltips explaining why the action is unavailable.

For example, in Data Quality, the following actions are disabled when ACUs are exhausted:

Creating new monitors
Running quality check runs
Other actions that consume ACUs

Upgrade Prompts¶

If you try to use a feature that requires ACUs you do not have or if your pool is completely exhausted, an upgrade prompt appears. The prompt explains that the feature requires an upgrade. To restore access, write an email to sales@alation.com to connect to a sales representative about your ACU usage.

Features that display an upgrade prompt include:

Data Product Chat
Other ACU-metered features

All users will see a contextual pop-up explaining why a metered action is blocked if your pool is exhausted.

Existing Subscriptions and Renewals¶

If you have already purchased an Alation 2.0 product (Curation Automation, Data Quality, Agent Studio, Data Product Marketplace), your existing entitlements and pricing continue exactly as they are until your renewal. At renewal, your existing product entitlements for the four in-scope products will be converted to an ACU pack at a revenue-equivalent rate.

If you have not purchased any of the four in-scope products but you’re a cloud customer, you receive 6,000 free ACUs immediately to explore all four products. If your team decides to purchase, your account team will recommend the right tier based on your usage patterns.