Credits: two currencies, three sources, and the order they are spent

What a credit is

A credit is the unit a call costs. The cheapest tools cost 2; tools that do real network or compute work cost more, up to 40. Every tool's page and the API reference state its exact cost, and you are charged per successful call — a call that fails is not billed.

Two kinds of credit

This is the part worth reading twice, because it is the only thing about our pricing that is not obvious.

Most tools spend general credits alone. A tool with a model step — summarising, OCR, embeddings, anything on the AI gateway — spends both: general credits for running the tool, AI credits for the tokens the model used.

They are separate balances. You can have plenty of one and none of the other, which is why a workspace can be refused a summarising tool while every other tool still runs. Both are shown separately on Billing → Credits.

Where credits come from

Each currency can arrive three ways, and they are spent soonest-to-expire first.

1. Monthly allowance

Comes with a subscription and refreshes at the start of every billing cycle. A plan grants both currencies — Pro, for example, is 20,000 general and 5,000 AI a month.

2. Carried credits (rollover)

When you change plan, whatever is left of the old allowance is carried across rather than destroyed. Carried credits expire 30 days from the day they are carried, and the amount carried is capped at one month of your new plan's allowance.

They are forfeited if the subscription ends. Rollover is a courtesy inside a subscription, not a balance you can bank and then cancel to keep.

3. Purchased credits

Bought as a credit pack. No subscription needed. They last twelve months from purchase and are unaffected by plan changes. General packs credit the general balance; AI packs credit the AI balance. A pack cannot cross from one to the other.

The spend order

carried  →  monthly allowance  →  purchased

Soonest-to-expire first, so you cannot lose credits to expiry while newer ones are being spent. That is the opposite of the obvious ordering, and it is deliberate.

What happens when credits run out

A call you cannot afford is refused before it runs, with an error saying what was used and what the limit is — never a silent failure.

One exception, and it is the honest one: a metered call whose true cost is only known once it has finished can end up costing more than the balance it started with. We have already paid the provider by then, so the difference is recorded rather than absorbed, and the balance can go negative. Topping up clears it first. This cannot happen on a fixed-price tool.

Turn on auto-refill if you would rather top up automatically than be interrupted. Each currency refills from its own kind of pack.