AI NativeCredits are the currency for live scans. Demo scans cost nothing. The billing section shows your current balance and the full history of every transaction, with the math for each charge visible in the ledger. Nothing is hidden behind an opaque monthly flat fee.
One credit equals one US dollar. Your balances are held in US dollars, and every figure inside the product, your wallet, a brand profile balance, a hold, a final bill, is in those same dollar-equal credits. A rupee figure appears in just one spot, the card checkout, where the payment gateway converts to your local currency at that moment. After payment lands, you are working in credits again.
The two-tier wallet
Credits live in two places. Your account wallet belongs to you as a person and is where card payments land. A brand profile wallet belongs to one brand profile and is what scans spend. You move credits from your account wallet into a brand profile when you want that profile to run scans. This is the two-tier model, and the How money works guide walks through it end to end.
The split keeps billing clean: the invoice for a card payment is to the person who paid, the cost of scanning is attributed to the right brand profile, and refunds go back to the original payment source.
Who can fund a brand profile
Only an owner or admin on a brand profile can move credits into it, reclaim from it, or start a card top-up. Strategists and viewers can see both balances and read the full ledger, but they cannot allocate, reclaim, or pay.
Allocating and reclaiming
Allocating moves credits from your account wallet into a brand profile. It is one atomic step that records two ledger rows: a debit on your account wallet and a matching credit on the profile wallet, both tagged with the category and the actor. Reclaiming reverses this, moving an unused profile balance back to your account wallet, capped at the credits that are actually free (not the ones a running scan is holding).
There are no direct profile-to-profile transfers. To shift credits between two profiles, reclaim from the first and allocate into the second. This is deliberate: every credit stays traceable from the card that paid for it to the scan that spent it.
Card top-ups and receipts
When self-serve card payments are enabled, the Add funds page shows a top-up form with the price stated plainly before you pay, in the form of a credit count and the amount in your currency. The payment is verified on completion, the credits land in your account wallet, and a receipt is emailed to whoever paid. If self-serve payments are not yet enabled, the same page offers a request-credits button instead, and credits are added manually within hours.
Your credit balance
The brand profile's balance appears large on the Add funds page, with your account wallet balance just beneath it. The profile balance changes when credits are allocated in, reclaimed out, or consumed by a live scan. Every transaction records the balance after the change.
How the credit estimate works
Before a live scan starts, an estimated cost appears on the product page as a credit chip. The tooltip discloses the full calculation: prompts measured multiplied by active surfaces equals answer count, at a per-answer rate. The basis for that rate is always shown: the median cost per answer from your own recent live scans of this product. If no product history exists, it falls back to recent scans across your workspace. If no workspace history exists, it uses the platform default.
As you run more live scans, your estimates become more accurate because they calibrate from your own data.
The credit hold
When you start a live scan, the estimated amount is held from your balance immediately - a reservation, not a final charge. The hold appears in the ledger as "credit hold for live scan" with the estimated answer count, rate, and basis. Two concurrent scans cannot both overdraft the balance because the hold is applied atomically: only the scan that successfully debits the hold proceeds.
Settlement: how the final bill is calculated
When a scan finishes, the hold is reconciled against the scan's real measured cost, accumulated call by call during the run. The final bill reflects the scan's real measured cost. If the real cost is lower than the hold, the difference is returned to your balance in the same transaction. The ledger row for settlement shows the real cost, the hold released, and the credits consumed.
Refunds on failed scans
If a scan errors, the full hold is returned as "full refund: the scan failed, you were not charged." Settlement fires exactly once per run, so you will not see multiple refund rows for the same scan even if a transient issue caused internal retries.
Reading the ledger
Each ledger row shows: what happened (human-readable), when, which scan it links to, and the delta with balance after. Final-bill rows show the real cost and the calculation. Hold rows show the estimated answer count, rate, and basis. You can trace any charge back to its source and verify the math.
Low-balance behavior
When a brand profile's balance is below a scan's estimated hold, starting a live scan 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.
Scheduled scans also check balance before running, but they are not skipped to the next cadence. If the profile is short, the scan parks in a visible Held state rather than running half-way or failing silently. The profile owner is emailed the numbers once, with a link to add funds, and the held scan resumes automatically the instant the profile has enough credits. You can see every held scan, and cancel or skip it, on the Scan pipeline page. Nothing is charged for a scan that did not run.
Questions
Is the estimated cost the amount I will be charged?
No. The estimate is the hold ceiling. Your actual charge is the real measured cost of the scan, reconciled at settlement. If the real cost is lower, the difference is returned immediately.
What happens if I run two scans at the same time?
Each hold is applied atomically. The second scan can only proceed if the remaining balance covers its hold. If it does not, it shows the insufficient-balance message and does not start.
What happens to my credits if a scan fails?
The full hold is refunded. The ledger records "full refund: the scan failed, you were not charged" and the balance is restored.
How do I see the full math behind a specific charge?
Find the ledger row in Workspace > Billing. The real cost, hold released, and credits consumed are shown inline. The row links to the scan run for additional context.
Who can add credits?
Only an owner or admin on a brand profile can fund it: that means starting a card top-up to the account wallet, allocating credits into the profile, or reclaiming them out. Strategists and viewers can see both balances and read the ledger, but they cannot move money.
What is the difference between my account wallet and a brand profile wallet?
Your account wallet is personal and is where card payments land. A brand profile wallet belongs to one profile and is what scans spend. You allocate credits from your account wallet into a profile to let it run scans, and you can reclaim unused credits back. See How money works.
Can I move credits from one brand profile to another?
Not directly. Reclaim the 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 to its payment and its scan.
Do I get a receipt when I pay by card?
Yes. When a card payment is verified, a receipt is emailed to the person who paid, showing the credits added and the amount charged, and the credits appear in your account wallet immediately.
How do refunds work?
Refunds go back to the original payment source. Because card money lands in your account wallet, the refundable balance is your account wallet, matched to the payment that funded it. Contact us to arrange a refund.
What happens when a brand profile is short of credits?
A live scan you start sends you to the Add funds page with the shortfall pre-filled, so one click moves credits in from your account wallet. A scheduled scan is not skipped to its next cadence: it parks in a visible Held state on the Scan pipeline page, the profile owner is emailed once, and it resumes automatically the moment the profile is funded. From that page you can also cancel or skip a held scan. You are never charged for a scan that did not run.
Does auto-scan consume credits?
Yes. Scheduled scans run live and use the brand profile's credits exactly as manually triggered live scans. If the profile balance is insufficient when a scheduled scan is due, the scan is not skipped to its next cadence: it parks in a Held state on the Scan pipeline page, the owner is emailed once, and it resumes automatically once the profile is funded.