Oracle says Ask Oracle is included with your NetSuite license, and eligible licenses come with a monthly allowance of AI Units, the measure NetSuite uses for AI consumption. The units are pooled, they expire when your term ends, and extra packs can be bought if you run out. The AI Connector does not consume them. So the experience is included, but heavy AI use is metered.
Key Takeaways
Part of the NetSuite Next, Without the Nerves series.
Last reviewed October 5, 2026 against Oracle's published NetSuite Next documentation. NetSuite Next is changing often, so check Oracle's pages for the current state.
The honest answer has two parts, and people tend to hear only one of them. The assistant is included. The usage is measured. Both are true, and the second one is where planning matters.
Oracle describes NetSuite Next as the same NetSuite platform with a redesigned experience and AI added, not as a new product, and its FAQ says Ask Oracle is included with your NetSuite license. We did not find a separate license fee for the Next experience in the Oracle documentation we reviewed. That is not a promise about your contract. Your order and service terms decide what you owe, so confirm with your account team.
Oracle's AI Units FAQ calls AI Units the elements of consumption for NetSuite AI features. Instead of asking you to track technical measures like tokens, NetSuite converts AI usage into units that you can see in your account. The amount is calculated from the AI processing a task needs after it runs, so shorter, simpler requests use fewer units, and long requests, large documents, and multi-step actions use more.
It depends on your licenses. Oracle's FAQ lists, among others, that each NetSuite General Access Cloud Service User includes 1,000 AI Units per month of term, provisioned upfront into your AI Unit pool. Oracle's own example: a 36-month term with 10 General Access users comes to 360,000 AI Units for use across the term.
Sandboxes and development accounts are different. Each sandbox has a separate pool equal to the AI Units licensed in the connected production account, and each development environment has a separate pool of 10,000 AI Units per month of term. Preview accounts are tracked separately too, so testing in a preview account does not draw from production.
Oracle says generative AI features, including Ask Oracle, Text Enhance, Prompt Studio, and the SuiteScript Generative AI APIs, use them, and so do SuiteApps that use those capabilities. Oracle also lists features such as Case Summary, Narrative Insights, and Transaction Matching Assistant. Add-on modules with AI capabilities, such as NetSuite Bill Capture, NetSuite EPM products, and NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, do not consume AI Units.
The NetSuite AI Connector is the exception that matters most for planning. Oracle says it will not consume AI Units, because it lets you use a third-party AI provider. That provider's plan is a separate cost, which we compare with Ask Oracle in a separate post in this series.
Oracle publishes estimates on its AI Units and NetSuite Features page, and says actual use varies with the request. The ranges below are Oracle's.
| AI action (Oracle's examples) | Estimated AI Units |
|---|---|
| Ask Oracle, a simple how-to question | About 10 |
| Ask Oracle, an analysis question about one invoice | 10 to 50 |
| Ask Oracle, a research question across customers | 50 to 200 |
| Narrative Insights on a customer record | 5 to 200 |
| Text Enhance rewording a message | 5 to 10 |
| Case Summary | 5 to 75 |
Use Oracle's ranges as brackets, then do the arithmetic. Take Oracle's 360,000 unit example. If every request were a simple question at about 10 units, that is roughly 36,000 questions across the term. If every request were a research question at the top of Oracle's range, 200 units, it is about 1,800. Real use will land somewhere between, and because the pool is shared, one heavy user draws from the same pool as everyone else. This is an illustration using Oracle's published estimates, not a forecast for your account.
The better method is to measure. Oracle says account administrators can see usage on the Billing Information page, under Setup, Company, View Billing Information, including units consumed in the current month. Run a pilot with one role, look at the first month, and project from there.
Oracle describes a limit model. As you near your amount you receive email alerts, and when you run out, Oracle says you are expected to buy more or pause further use of AI features. Units do not carry over, and unused units expire when your NetSuite term ends. Additional units come in pooled packs of 10,000 and 25,000. The FAQ does not publish prices for those packs, so ask your account team for a quote and treat any figure you see elsewhere as unconfirmed.
There is no single account-level switch to disable all AI functionality, per Oracle. Features are managed individually through AI Preferences, roles, and permissions. Ask Oracle access is granted by role, and Oracle's access documentation says roles do not have it by default. In practice, role access is also your most direct cost control: the fewer roles with Ask Oracle, the fewer people drawing on the pool.
One caveat. Oracle notes that Ask Oracle and NetSuite Next require AI functionality to operate, so they cannot be used if their required AI capabilities are disabled.
Oracle says Ask Oracle is included with your NetSuite license, and it describes NetSuite Next as the same platform rather than a new product. AI use is metered in AI Units, which come with eligible licenses. We did not find a separate fee for the Next experience in Oracle's documentation. Confirm your terms with your account team.
AI Units are the measure NetSuite uses to count consumption of its AI features. Oracle converts the AI processing a task needs into units, so you do not track tokens. Eligible licenses include a monthly allowance in a shared pool, and administrators can see usage on the Billing Information page.
Yes. Oracle's NetSuite Next FAQ says Ask Oracle is included with your NetSuite license. Using it consumes AI Units, and an administrator has to enable it by role, because roles do not have access by default. A simple question uses about 10 units, and a research question can use 50 to 200, per Oracle.
Oracle says you receive email alerts as you near your licensed amount, and when units run out you are expected to buy more or pause AI features. Unused units do not carry over and expire when your term ends. Extra units come in pooled packs, and Oracle's FAQ does not publish their prices.
No. Oracle states the NetSuite AI Connector does not consume AI Units, because it lets you use a third-party AI provider. That provider may charge for its own plan, and the connector sends data outside NetSuite, so review access, roles, and the execution log before you connect anything.
Account administrators can see AI Units usage on the Billing Information page, under Setup, Company, View Billing Information, including how many were used in the current month. Oracle also describes usage alerts as you approach your allowance. Check this after a pilot, and again before you expand access to more roles.
Not with one setting, per Oracle. AI features are managed individually through AI Preferences, roles, and permissions, so you can disable some features and limit others by role. Ask Oracle and NetSuite Next need AI functionality to operate, so they cannot be used if their required AI capabilities are turned off.
Most surprises come from not knowing who will use what. A small pilot, one role, and a look at the Billing Information page after a month will tell you more than any estimate, including ours.
If you want help choosing the pilot, setting access by role, and deciding where AI belongs in your workflows, see our AI services or start with the NetSuite Next guide.
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Joseph Lang is the Director of inVESTED PRO at The Vested Group. With more than 13 years of NetSuite experience, he helps organizations maximize the value of their ERP investment through strategic guidance, operational improvements, and ongoing managed services. Joseph specializes in NetSuite optimization, manufacturing, warehouse management, inventory management, procurement, and SuiteCommerce, helping clients continuously improve their business processes and long-term ERP performance.