3. AI credits and consumption
AI credits cover live agent work and chargeable knowledge operations. Knowing what opens a paid window or starts a charged import helps you plan testing and keep knowledge up to date without unnecessary retries.
Check Settings → Billing → Included credits for usage and reset timing. The allowance is shared across all workspaces in the business.
AI response windows
One credit opens a 24-hour AI window for a conversation. Further eligible responses in that window do not spend another credit. The window has a 20-reply cap; reaching it causes handoff rather than unlimited automated responses. A later eligible answer after the window expires can open another window and spend another credit.
A successful live answer opens the window when it is recorded. A direct human request or a no-answer handoff before an answer does not by itself open a paid window. Model retries are not separately billed as customer credits. Errors and handoffs can still use daily operational quotas.
Drafts and console tests
Draft reply can open a window before generating the draft, so a failed or empty draft can already have spent that credit. Drafts within an existing window do not open another paid window. AI agent → Test spends no credits and creates no conversation, but has a separate daily request limit.
Knowledge charges
| Operation | Credit effect |
|---|---|
| Ordinary file upload | One credit per started ten estimated text pages, charged on confirmation. |
| File estimate | Extraction and the estimate itself do not spend credits. |
| Single URL import | One credit when the source is accepted. |
| Domain Preview | One credit each time, before discovery completes. |
| Confirm domain crawl | One credit per started ten previewed pages, up to 100 pages. |
| File resync | Recalculates estimated pages and charges the file rate again. |
| URL resync | One credit again. |
| Domain resync | Charges from the recorded page count, or the 100-page cap when unavailable. |
| Manual FAQ or FAQ spreadsheet | No credit charge; storage and daily limits apply. |
| Suggested FAQ generation and approval | No separate credit debit; eligibility and daily limits apply. |
| Correction or article publication | No separate credit debit; storage and daily limits apply. |
| Deactivate or delete a source | No new debit and no refund of earlier use. |
File page calculation
File pages are calculated from extracted text: each started 3,000 tokens is a page. PDF print pages, Word pagination and spreadsheet row counts are not the charging unit. Supported ordinary file formats all use this rule. XLSX FAQ imports follow the free FAQ-import workflow instead.
Retries and failures
Accepted ingestion jobs can fail after credits have been debited. There is no automatic failure refund. A replacement file is a new upload; refreshing or retrying a charged source can spend credits again. Inspect errors before repeating an operation.
Credit examples
Customer interaction
Alex asks a supported question at 10:00. The first recorded AI answer opens a window costing one credit. Four more AI replies before 10:00 the next day cost no additional credits within that window. A human handoff does not add a credit. A different conversation has its own window, even if Alex is the same contact.
Knowledge upload
A file extracts to 33,000 tokens. Dividing by 3,000 gives 11 estimated pages. Eleven pages require two started groups of ten, so the confirmation cost is two credits. Resyncing the same extracted content costs two more. These examples assume enough remaining allowance; they are not based on a document's visual page count.
Credit resets
Free credits reset at the UTC calendar-month boundary. Paid credits use monthly periods aligned to subscription timing, including annual subscriptions. Use the Resets date in Billing for your account. Unused credits do not roll over. Upgrading raises the allowance while preserving recorded use.
Exhaustion and daily limits
Usage warnings are generated at 80%, 90% and 100% of the allowance used. When credits run out:
- New paid AI windows and charged knowledge jobs are prevented.
- An already-paid AI window can continue within its time and reply limits.
- Human work remains available, subject to other restrictions.
Free businesses also share a service-level daily eligibility cap. Individual AI actions have daily limits even when credits remain.