You're paying $20 a month and suddenly your AI is cutting you off mid-afternoon. You're not imagining it. In March 2026, Anthropic and Google quietly changed how many tokens you get — no press release, no announcement. In this episode Katie Branley and Dr. Ericka Pitman break down what a token actually is, why the era of unlimited AI is ending, and four rules you can use right now to make your plan go further.

What's Inside:

What Is a Token — The unit of AI computation explained in plain language, and why your $20 plan is not as unlimited as you thought

Why Limits Changed — How usage shifted from simple chat to multi-page documents, agents, and workflows — and why the big AI companies quietly hit the brakes in March 2026

Track Your Usage — How to find Claude's gas gauge in your settings and what Gemini is suspiciously not showing you

The Off-Peak Advantage — Why your tokens burn faster between 8am and 2pm Eastern and how to schedule your heavy AI work around it

Right Model for the Job — Opus vs. Sonnet vs. Haiku, and why you don't need a sports car to pick up groceries

Start Fresh — Why that giant running chat is costing you thousands of tokens every time you ask a new question, and the smarter way to work

This Week's Mixtape Rules:

1. Check your usage gauge in Claude settings — know your tank level
2. Schedule heavy AI work outside peak hours, after 2pm or before 8am Eastern
3. Match the model to the task — save Opus for the hard stuff
4. Start a new chat instead of letting one conversation run forever

Want to Work With Us? If you are ready to bring AI into your work or your organization in a way that actually makes sense, we would love to talk. Visit us at empoweredailearning.com to learn more about our courses, workshops, and consulting. Subscribe to our Substack for weekly AI insights between episodes.

Website: empoweredailearning.com Substack: empoweredai.substack.com

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AI Mixtape — where you understand the AI, and you stay human.