Understanding credits
Credits meter your agent's chat replies. Each plan includes a monthly bucket that refills every month, and you can top up with add-ons when you need more.
What a credit is
One live visitor turn (one message in, one reply out from a visitor on your published widget) consumes 1 to 25 credits depending on the model you picked. Tool calls (search_knowledge, lead_capture) on the same turn are bundled in. You are not charged twice.
The default model, GPT-5.4 Nano, costs 1 credit per turn, so on the default model 1 credit is roughly one message. Premium models cost more per turn, so the same bucket covers fewer turns.
Testing in the sandbox uses your credits
While you are still setting up a brand-new agent, your first 5 onboarding test messages are free. They come out of a separate onboarding allowance, so trying your agent during setup does not touch your monthly credits. The counter shows "X of 5" during onboarding.
Once those 5 are used, or once you finish onboarding, sandbox replies use the same monthly credits as replies to live visitors, so what you see while testing matches what you will spend live. The machine-run onboarding checks are not charged to you either.
Monthly bucket
| Plan | Credits / month |
|---|---|
| Free | 100 |
| Starter | 2,000 |
| Advanced | 8,000 |
| Pro | 30,000 |
A new workspace starts on Free with 100 credits so you can send your first messages right away. On Free, your 100 credits are topped back up on the first day of each month. On a paid plan the bucket resets on the first day of your billing cycle. Unused credits do not roll over on any plan.
Top-ups (Extra Credits add-on)
Run low before the reset? Buy the Extra Credits add-on: $20 buys 1,000 credits. It applies to your current month and stacks with your plan bucket. Spend them before your next monthly reset: the reset returns your balance to your plan allowance, so unspent purchased credits do not roll over.
A top-up is cheaper than upgrading a tier if your spike is a one-off. For sustained higher traffic, upgrade the plan: Starter at $40 includes 2,000 credits, Advanced at $120 includes 8,000, Pro at $400 includes 30,000.
Running low
Your agent does not stop the moment it can no longer afford the model you picked. While you still have at least one credit, your published widget keeps answering on the cheapest 1 credit model, so visitors get a reply rather than silence. Your agent stays on your own knowledge and instructions throughout, only the model behind the reply changes.
Replies stop only when the balance reaches zero.
When you run out
Every channel your agent answers on behaves the same way, so a depleted balance never leaves a customer waiting on an agent that has simply gone quiet:
| Channel | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
| Website widget | The notice appears in the chat, in place of the reply. |
| The notice is sent back once per depletion, not once per message, so an agent that is out of credits does not answer every follow-up with the same line. |
Either way the notice is recorded on the conversation in your Inbox, so when you look into a thread that went quiet the reason is already there.
Auto-topup
Available on Starter Advanced Pro.
Auto-topup buys credits for you when you run out, so a busy day does not take your agent offline while you are asleep. It is off until you turn it on. Find it on the Billing page.
Switching it on takes two steps: save a card, then turn on the toggle. The card is entered on Stripe's secure page, so we never see the number, and the toggle stays disabled until a card is on file.
Once it is on, hitting zero credits charges your saved card $20 and adds 1,000 credits, the same amount as the Extra Credits add-on. Stripe emails you a receipt for every charge.
You decide how far it can go. The limit per billing cycle sets how many top-ups may happen before the next renewal, from 1 up to 50, and the card shows how many you have used so far this cycle. When the limit is reached, no further charges are made and the agent behaves as it would without auto-topup. The counter starts again at each renewal.
Turn it off at any time, and the switch keeps working even if the workspace moves back to Free, so you can always withdraw permission to charge your card.
Stuck? We're here.
Every plan, including Free, comes with human support. If something isn't behaving the way you expect after following the steps above, send us a note and we'll get back to you promptly.