AI in SteadStack: What It Does and How the Limits Work

SteadStack has a handful of AI features built in. They're there to cut out typing: you snap a photo of a receipt instead of keying in every line, or you ask "what's due today?" instead of clicking through three screens. This post covers what each feature does, which plans include it, and how the monthly allowance works so you're never caught off guard.

What the AI can do

1. The SteadStack Assistant

The chat assistant lives in the corner of the web app and has its own tab in the mobile app. Ask it questions in plain language and it looks up the answers in your own farm records:

• "What's on my list today?" gives you today's tasks.

• "Where's Daisy?" or "Pull up tag 214." finds an animal by name or tag.

• "How many in the layer flock?" lists your animal groups.

• "How much hay do we have left?" checks inventory levels.

It can also do a few things for you. It can create a task for a specific day, and it can log a health record on an animal. Creating tasks follows the same rules as the rest of SteadStack: if your role can't create tasks, the assistant can't create them for you either.

2. Receipt scanning for purchases

In Purchasing → Record Purchase, take a photo of a receipt (or upload one) and SteadStack reads the vendor, date, line items and totals, then fills in the purchase form for you. You check it, fix anything it got wrong, and save. Long receipts can be photographed in several pages.

3. Receipt scanning for your shopping list

Back from the store? Scan the receipt from your Shopping List and SteadStack matches what you bought against what was on the list, so you don't have to tick items off one by one. This works even if you don't use the Purchasing module.

4. Recipe scanning

Photograph a recipe card, a cookbook page or a handwritten family recipe and SteadStack turns it into a recipe in Meal Planning, complete with ingredients, quantities, units and steps. Because it creates a whole recipe, you always get a review screen first, and nothing is saved until you approve it.

5. Meal ideas from what you have

On the Meal Planning page (web), ask for suggestions and SteadStack looks at your pantry and food-storage lots and proposes recipes you can make with what's already on hand. It's a good way to use up the canned tomatoes from last August before the new harvest comes in.

Which plans include AI

AI features are included on every paid plan. The Free plan doesn't include AI. Everything else in Free still works as usual, and you can upgrade at any time to turn AI on.

Monthly AI allowance

Each farm gets a monthly allowance of AI requests, shared by everyone on the account:

• Free: AI not included

• Homestead: 440 requests per month

• Growth: 620 requests per month

• Pro: 800 requests per month

• Founding Member and Early Adopter plans: 100 requests per month. These plans are locked in at a fraction of list price for life, so the AI allowance is scaled to match.

What counts as one request

• One message to the assistant is one request, even if the assistant has to look up several things to answer it.

• One scan (a receipt or a recipe) is one request, even if you photograph several pages.

• One request for meal suggestions is one request.

Opening the chat, reading past answers and editing a scan before you save it don't use your allowance. Only sending something to the AI does.

When the allowance resets

The count starts over on the 1st of every month (midnight UTC). Unused requests don't roll over.

What happens if you run out

Once your farm reaches its allowance, the AI features tell you so and stop until the 1st. Nothing else is affected: your records, tasks, inventory, accounting and every other part of SteadStack keep working normally, and you can always enter purchases and recipes by hand. If you're regularly running out, a higher plan raises the allowance.

Why there's a limit at all

Every AI request costs us real money to run, unlike most of SteadStack, which costs about the same whether you click once or a thousand times. We'd rather give you a clear, generous allowance than quietly raise prices or slow everyone down. The numbers are set so that a farm using its full allowance is still covered by its plan, which keeps your price stable.

A few good habits

• Always review scans. The AI is good at reading receipts and recipes, but faded thermal paper and handwriting can trip it up. Every scan lands on a review screen for a reason.

• Ask complete questions. "How much layer feed is left at the north barn?" gets you there in one request. "Feed?" may take two.

• Double-check anything important. The assistant answers from your records, so it's only as current as they are.

Questions about AI or your plan? Visit the Help Center or compare plans on the Pricing page.