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AI Explained

The AI terms that actually show up when you're buying software

Not another "what is an LLM" explainer. We only write about the AI plumbing we've actually run into while testing a real tool — credits, usage caps, per-seat AI add-ons — explained plainly, tied back to something we've reviewed.

AI EXPLAINED Sep 10, 2026

What Are AI Agent Permissions? Understanding Meta Muse's Approval Controls

AI agent permissions define what an assistant is allowed to access or do on your behalf. An approval gate is a pause that requires your decision before a particular action can proceed. The useful question is not simply whether an agent asks permission, but what each approval covers and when it ends.

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AI EXPLAINEDJul 20, 2026

What Are AI Credits? Decoding GitHub Copilot's Usage-Based Pricing

AI credits are a prepaid balance built into a subscription: instead of a fixed monthly allowance of requests, each AI action is priced by how much computing work it actually takes and deducted from that balance until it reaches zero. GitHub Copilot moved its Pro, Pro+, and Max plans to this model on June 1, 2026, converting each plan's price into an equivalent monthly credit balance that different AI models draw down at different rates. Once the balance is spent, extra usage either pulls from an optional paid top-up or pauses until the next billing cycle.

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AI EXPLAINEDJul 21, 2026

What Are Compute-Based Usage Caps? Decoding Google Gemini's Usage Limits

A compute-based usage cap doesn't count how many times you use an AI tool — it measures how much computing work each use actually takes, so a short question and a long video-generation request drain the same limit at very different rates. Google Gemini switched to this model in 2026, replacing simple prompt counts with a rolling quota that refreshes every five hours and builds toward a weekly ceiling, with higher subscription tiers granting a larger multiple of that quota rather than a fixed daily number. Because cost depends on the model, feature, and length of a request rather than a simple tally, the same subscription can feel generous on one day and exhausted within minutes on another.

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FAQ

About this section, honestly

Why this reads differently from every other "AI explained" page you've seen.

Why do you only cover AI concepts tied to tools you've reviewed?
Because that's the only way we can back a claim with something concrete. If we can point to a real pricing page, a real credit meter, or a real usage cap we've hit ourselves, the explanation stays grounded. General AI theory is everywhere already — we'd rather add the pieces nobody else is tying back to an actual buying decision.
Are these explainers written by AI, or by a person?
A person writes and edits every explainer, based on what we ran into while testing a tool. We do use AI tools ourselves in the process — this is a software review site, after all — but the judgment calls and the final wording are ours, not generated wholesale.
How is this different from every other "what is AI" article online?
Most AI explainers are written to rank for a keyword, not because the author ran into the concept firsthand. Ours starts from the opposite direction: something confusing showed up while we were testing a real tool, so we wrote it down. If a topic isn't tied to something we've actually seen, it doesn't get a page here.
Do these explainers ever recommend or promote a specific tool?
They may reference a tool as an example — the way a browser-based coding tool might show up in a piece about credit-based billing — but the goal is to explain the mechanic, not to sell the tool. If you want our actual opinion on a tool, that's what the Reviews section is for.
How often is new content added to this section?
Whenever a new review surfaces a concept worth explaining — there's no fixed schedule. This section is intentionally slow-growing; we'd rather publish a handful of well-grounded explainers a year than pad it out with filler on a schedule.
Can I suggest a term or concept I want explained?
Yes — that's genuinely how this list grows. If you keep running into a term nobody explains simply, let us know and we'll look into whether it's something we can tie to a tool we've tested.
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