AI NativeWhat is a credit?
A credit is the unit every balance is denominated in. When you run a live scan, the cost is deducted from the brand profile's wallet. One credit corresponds to a fixed amount of platform spend, and the conversion rate is the same everywhere. Demo scans are always free and do not touch any balance.
Where do credits sit, and which wallet does a scan spend?
Credits live in two places. Your account wallet is personal and is where card payments land. A brand profile wallet belongs to one profile, and a live scan spends that profile's credits, never your account wallet directly. You move credits from your account wallet into a brand profile, an action called allocating, to let that profile run scans. See How money works for the full walkthrough.
Who can add or move credits?
Only an owner or admin on a brand profile can fund it: top up the account wallet by card, allocate credits into the profile, or reclaim unused credits back out. Strategists and viewers can see both balances and read the ledger but cannot move money. The profile pays for every scan regardless of who starts it.
How is the cost of a live scan calculated?
The final bill for a live scan reflects the scan's real measured cost. Before the scan runs, you see an estimate based on how many prompts will be measured, how many AI engine surfaces are included, how many times each prompt is repeated, and the per-answer rate observed from your own recent scan history. After the scan completes, the charge is reconciled against what the calls actually cost. The estimate is a hold; the final bill is the reality. Every credit movement is written to your ledger with enough detail to verify the arithmetic.
What does the pre-scan estimate cover?
The estimate covers the expected number of answers, the number of AI surfaces in the scan, and the per-answer rate calibrated from your workspace's recent live scans. If your workspace has no live history yet, the estimate uses a platform-wide default rate until your own scan history provides a better basis. The estimate is shown to you before you confirm the scan so you can decide whether to proceed.
What is a credit hold?
When you confirm a live scan, the estimated cost is immediately debited from your balance as a hold. The hold reserves those credits so you cannot accidentally queue more scans than your balance can cover. Once the scan finishes, the hold is reconciled: if the real cost was lower than the estimate, the difference is returned to your balance. If it was higher, the additional amount is deducted. The ledger records both the hold and the reconciliation so you can see the full picture.
What happens to my credits if a scan fails?
You receive a full refund of the hold if a scan fails at the point of final settlement. The refund is automatic and immediate, and it is recorded in your ledger with an explanation. You are never charged for a scan that did not complete. Failed individual answer acquisitions within a successful scan are a different situation: they are excluded from rate calculations and their costs are not billed, but the scan overall is still settled at the cost of the answers it successfully acquired.
How do I see what I have been charged?
The ledger in Workspace > Billing shows every credit movement in your workspace, with the reason, the amount, the balance after, and a reference to the scan it relates to. Each ledger entry for a live scan shows the hold amount, the final measured cost, and the difference. You can verify every figure against the detail rows.
Will I get a warning before a scan empties my balance?
Yes. The pre-scan cost estimate is shown to you before you confirm, and if your current balance is not sufficient to cover the estimated cost, the scan will not be queued. The balance check happens both as an advisory before you see the estimate and as an atomic operation when the hold is applied, so you cannot accidentally start a scan your balance cannot cover.
How do I top up my credit balance?
Open the Add funds page. When self-serve card payments are enabled, you enter how many credits you want, see the price stated plainly before you pay (a credit count and the amount in your currency), and complete the payment. The credits land in your account wallet and a receipt is emailed to whoever paid. From there you allocate credits into the brand profile that needs them. If card payments are not yet enabled, the same page has a request-credits button and we add credits within hours.
Can I move credits between brand profiles?
Not directly. Reclaim the unused credits from the first profile back to your account wallet, then allocate them into the second. There are no direct profile-to-profile transfers, so every credit stays traceable from the payment that funded it to the scan that spent it.
What happens to a top-up payment and is there a receipt?
When a card payment is verified, the credits are added to your account wallet immediately and a receipt is emailed to the person who paid, showing the credits added and the amount charged. Refunds, if needed, go back to the original payment source, which is why card money lands in your personal account wallet.
What is a low-balance warning?
If a brand profile does not have enough credits for a scan you start by hand, the platform sends you to the Add funds page with the shortfall pre-filled in the allocate form, so one click moves the right amount in from your account wallet. A scheduled scan behaves differently. If the profile is short when it falls due, the scan is not skipped or half-run. It parks as Held, listed on the Scan pipeline page under Overview > Scan pipeline, and the profile owner is emailed the numbers once, with a link to add funds. The moment the profile is funded the held scan resumes on its own, so nothing fails silently and you are not emailed again. From the Scan pipeline page you can also skip or cancel a held scan. Nothing is charged for a scan that has not run, whether it is held or cancelled.
Do credits expire?
Credits do not expire under normal circumstances. Prepaid balances roll forward indefinitely as long as your workspace is active.
Can I run multiple scans at the same time?
Yes, but each queued live scan holds its estimated cost at the time it is queued. If you have two scans queued simultaneously, the holds for both are applied to your balance at the time of queuing. You need enough balance to cover both holds when you queue the second scan.
How do I estimate costs before setting up a product?
The cost estimate for a scan depends on your prompt set size, the number of engine surfaces you include, and the repeat count. The estimate screen shows these inputs and the projected answer count before you confirm. A reasonable starting point for a new product is a focused prompt set measured across two or three surfaces with three repeats per prompt. Running a demo scan first, then reviewing the prompt set, is the lowest-risk way to calibrate before your first live spend.
Where can I find more about what a scan measures?
See the metrics guides for how mention rate, recommendation rate, and the visibility ladder are computed, and the scans and results guide for how to read and interpret a completed scan.