Understanding your credits
What a credit is, what each action costs, when credits reset, and when they come back automatically.
Studio Plus
What a credit is
A credit measures AI creation use. It is not money, it has no cash value, and it cannot be redeemed, transferred, or withdrawn. It exists so that expensive operations cost more than cheap ones, in units you can see before you commit.
What things cost
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Prepare a suggested description | Free (rate limited) |
| Generate or restyle one illustration | 1 credit |
| Generate a story or travelogue draft | 1 credit |
| Generate narration for a page | 2 credits |
| Economy video — 4 / 6 / 8 seconds | 1 / 2 / 2 credits |
| Balanced video — 4 / 6 / 8 seconds | 2 / 3 / 4 credits |
| Cinematic video — 4 / 6 / 8 seconds | 8 / 12 / 16 credits |
The exact charge is always shown on the button before you press it.
When they reset
Credits are granted monthly, on your credit period boundary, to monthly and
annual subscribers alike. The Plan and credits screen shows remaining / total
and the next reset date.
Credits do not currently roll over. Unused credits at the end of a period expire. If rollover is added later it will be capped and the oldest grant will be spent first.
When credits come back
Automatically refunded:
- the AI provider failed or could not be reached
- the request was refused on safety grounds
- the output came back empty or corrupt
Not automatically refunded:
- a successful generation you simply did not like
For that last case, improving your description is almost always cheaper than rerolling. See write a better prompt.
Request retries: the backend records request IDs so repeating the same active request does not reserve the same charge twice. The current app does not yet restore an in-progress generation after the app has been closed; check your balance and Library before starting a replacement request.
Free actions are still limited
Preparing a suggested description costs no credits, but it is rate limited to stop runaway use. If you hit the limit, wait a minute.
Making credits go further
- Write better descriptions. The single biggest saving. Two minutes of editing beats three rerolls.
- Use Economy video. Cinematic costs up to sixteen times as much for a clip most viewers will not distinguish on a phone.
- Record your own narration. It is free, unlimited, and better.
- Use photographs and sketches directly. They cost nothing and often suit the book more than a generated illustration.
- Reuse a prompt that worked instead of experimenting from scratch on every page.