AI credits
How AI credits work in Zexr, what each AI action costs, the monthly allowance and reset rules, and how to buy top-up packs.
AI features run on credits, and they need a paid plan. Your plan grants a monthly allowance that refreshes every month, and top-up packs you buy never expire.
Check and top up credits
Open the AI & credits tab of Settings > Billing (it needs the Manage billing permission).
Check your balance and the reset date beside it.
Buy a top-up pack of 500, 2,000 or 10,000 credits through Stripe Checkout.
Good to know
- Unused monthly credits do not roll over. Purchased credits survive every reset.
- Spending draws the monthly allowance first, then purchased credits.
- Each action reserves a small minimum up front, then settles against real usage. A provider error refunds it.
- Running out stops work before it starts, so you are never half-charged.
- You can set daily, weekly and monthly spend limits for the workspace and for each member.
AI features run on credits, and they are paid-only: a free trial carries no allowance and the AI surfaces stay locked until the workspace is on a paid plan. Your plan grants a monthly allowance that refreshes every month, and top-up packs never expire.
Who can manage credits
Everything here lives on the AI & credits tab of Settings > Billing and needs the Manage billing permission. Other members do not see it.
A dedicated reviewer workspace starts with 100 test credits. Its header gauge and popover label them Test credits rather than plan credits. These use the normal credit ledger and spend rules, and do not keep paid features unlocked after the reviewer grant expires. Joining an existing workspace as a tester does not add credits.
| Pool | Refresh | Rollover |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly allowance | Reset to the plan amount every month | No, unused credits are replaced by the fresh grant |
| Purchased credits | Bought as top-up packs | Yes, they never expire and survive every reset |
Spending draws the monthly pool first and only touches purchased credits once it is empty, holding your top-ups in reserve for heavy months.
Every refresh sets the monthly pool to the plan amount. It never adds to what is left and never touches purchased credits.
| Workspace | When the allowance refreshes |
|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | Each time the monthly invoice is paid |
| Yearly subscription | When the yearly invoice is paid, then once a month after that |
| Plan granted by an operator | The moment the grant is made, then once a month while it is in force. Granting the same plan again in the same month does not refresh it |
A monthly refresh happens one calendar month after the previous one, and the reset date beside your balance shows when it last happened. A yearly subscription that is past due, or a grant that has lapsed or been revoked, stops refreshing. When a workspace pays for one plan and is granted another, it gets the larger of the two allowances. See plans granted by an operator.
Each action reserves a flat minimum up front (which also gates an empty balance before work starts), then settles against real token usage after the call.
| Action | Minimum |
|---|---|
| Writing assistant draft, selection edit ("Edit with AI") | 1 |
| Remie step | 1 per turn |
| Reply draft, compose draft, contact research run | 2 |
| AI spam analysis of a campaign step, and each Re-check | 2 |
| Single-shot automation AI step (classify, extract, generate) | 1 |
| Automation AI agent step | 1 per step |
| AI switch or campaign switch step, AI decider (value decider is free) | 1 |
| Ask AI branch | 1 per evaluation |
| Per-recipient AI variable, instant / research mode | 1 / 2 per recipient |
| Web search by an AI step (only when results are found) | 1 |
| Inbox agent reply or draft (a retry after a failed check is included; opt-outs and removal notes are free) | 5 |
Five rules govern the settle:
- One credit buys a fixed token budget on the serving model: light models (mini and haiku class) at 1,500 tokens per credit, standard models at 400. The exact model and token count appear in the transaction log.
- Overage can never fail a result you already received; at worst it drains the balance to zero.
- A provider error refunds the reserved minimum automatically, so you are never charged for output you did not get.
- A contact research run that finds nothing still costs its credits. You are paying for the search, not the result.
- Running out returns "insufficient credits" before any work starts, so a depleted balance never leaves you half-charged.
Credits also pay for inbox placement tests once a paid workspace has used its free tests for the month. A test is a flat 25 credits (the operator can change the price), with no AI involved and no settle afterwards. Nothing is charged without you agreeing to it: the new-test dialog shows the price and your balance, and you tick to pay before the test can start. A test that delivers no copy is refunded to the pools it came from. Placement charges count toward your spend limits (a refunded one no longer does) and appear in the usage breakdown as Placement tests; they are not held to the AI generation caps. Tests on your own seed inboxes are always free.
The AI usage & spend controls card shows today, this week, and this month spend, a graph over the last 7, 30, or 90 days, and breakdowns by feature and model (credits, tokens, call counts). Each limit is set by slider or exact number and shows current spend against it; changes collect into a save bar.
| Control | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Spend limits | Optional hard caps per calendar day, ISO week, and calendar month. At the limit, AI pauses with a clear message until the window rolls over |
| Per-member limits | The same three windows per teammate, counting only charges they triggered. Workspace-level work (automations, inbox agent) is attributed to nobody |
| Low-credit reminder | Below your threshold, everyone with Manage billing gets an in-app alert, at most once a day |
| Auto top-up | Buys your chosen pack automatically when the balance dips below a threshold, bounded by a monthly purchase maximum. Needs the saved subscription card |
Who can use AI at all is separate: the Use AI role permission (see Team and roles).
| Plan | Monthly credits |
|---|---|
| Free trial | none, AI is a paid feature |
| Starter | 250 |
| Grow | 2,000 |
| Business | 25,000 |
Paid workspaces get a fresh grant every month, yearly subscriptions included, with the reset date shown beside your balance. Top-up packs come in 500, 2,000, and 10,000 credits, paid through Stripe Checkout with the card on file, landing in the purchased pool as soon as payment settles. Top-ups require an active paid plan.
Purchases settle through Stripe
Credits arrive only after Stripe confirms payment, not when you click. Closing the checkout tab charges nothing. A completed purchase is applied exactly once even if Stripe retries.
Every grant, purchase, and spend, newest first, with the activity, model and token count, signed credit change, resulting balance, and time. Each spend records exactly what ran it: campaign, step, and contact for a switch step; automation, node, and run for an automation step (including what an Ask AI branch asked); the thread for inbox drafts; and the teammate behind manual features.
Do unused monthly credits roll over? No. Buy a top-up pack for credits that carry over.
Do purchased credits expire? No, through any number of resets.
What happens when I change plans? Your allowance follows the new plan from the next cycle. Purchased credits are unaffected.
What happens if I cancel? Monthly grants stop; any purchased balance stays until spent.