# Credits Source: https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/credits > For AI agents: the documentation index is at https://www.hyperagent.com/llms.txt and the complete documentation in one file at https://www.hyperagent.com/llms-full.txt. Any docs page is also served as Markdown by appending `.md` to its URL. How credits work, what they pay for, when they expire, and what to do when your balance runs low. Credits are a USD balance that pays for metered work in Hyperagent. Your plan price is charged up front and becomes credit that agents spend as they run models, generate media, search the web, drive browsers, and take actions through integrations. ## Your plan price becomes credit [#your-plan-price-becomes-credit] Pick a monthly plan and you pay its price at the start of each billing period. Every dollar comes back as credit to spend, plus a bonus on top: up to 45 percent extra on bigger plans. On Hyperagent 100, for example, $100 becomes $115 of credit. Your agents spend that credit as they work. Every run deducts the cost of the models, media, and tools it used, and whatever is left is yours to spend for the rest of the period. ## What credits pay for [#what-credits-pay-for] A run's cost is the sum of the metered work behind it. Each line below is a charge type you will see itemized on the Usage card in Settings → Billing: Input, output, and cache tokens used by supported models. Images generated during a run. Video seconds generated during a run. Spoken audio generated from text. Searches an agent runs to find current information. Interactive browser time used to complete a run. Actions an agent takes through connected services. Presenter videos created with avatar tools. ## What a run costs [#what-a-run-costs] No two runs cost the same, because you pay for what the agent actually does rather than a fixed price per message. A quick question that needs one model reply costs little. A deep research task that reads dozens of pages, calls several tools, and generates images costs more. The Usage card itemizes every charge in a period by provider and model, so you can see exactly what a run spent. Ask an agent to triage an inbox of support requests and the card shows the model tokens for each reply, the web searches behind any escalation research, and the browser sessions used to open linked tickets, each as its own line. ## Why costs vary [#why-costs-vary] Three things push a run's cost up or down: * **The model you pick.** Faster, smaller models cost less per token than frontier models. * **How much context the run carries.** Every message includes the earlier conversation, so longer threads cost more per reply. * **How many tools and media the run uses.** Each search, browser session, image, and connected-service action adds its own charge. To lower spend, pick a lighter model for routine work, start a fresh thread instead of extending a long one, and connect only the tools the task needs. See [Control your costs](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/control-costs) for the full approach. ## When credits expire [#when-credits-expire] Each kind of credit follows its own clock. The credit from your plan plus its bonus is spent within the billing period it was granted for. Whatever is unused expires when the period ends, and a fresh grant arrives when the next period begins. See [Manage your plan](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/plans/manage-plan) for when a period starts and ends. Credit you [buy as a block](#buy-a-credit-block) or receive through [auto-recharge](#turn-on-auto-recharge) lasts 90 days from the purchase date, so it carries across billing periods until spent. Promotional and referral credits are issued as separate blocks. Each block shows its remaining balance and its own expiry date in Settings → Billing. An unused block is forfeited when that date passes. When you hold more than one kind of credit, Hyperagent always spends the block with the nearest expiry date first, whether that is a promotional block, a bonus block, or your plan credit. Spending down the soonest-to-expire credit first is what keeps a block from expiring unused while a later one sits idle. ## What happens when your balance runs low [#what-happens-when-your-balance-runs-low] By default, your plan price is all you ever pay. When your credit for the period is spent, new runs pause until the next period begins. Nothing extra is billed unless you choose it. There are two ways to add more, and both are opt-in. Both live on the Prepaid credit card in **Settings → Billing**: ### Buy a credit block [#buy-a-credit-block] A credit block is a one-time top-up you buy in **Settings → Billing**. You choose a whole-dollar amount between $10 and $25,000, and every dollar buys exactly one dollar of credit. Top-ups do not earn the plan bonus. The charge goes to your saved card right away, and the credit becomes spendable as soon as the payment settles, usually within moments. If the payment fails, the block waits as pending rather than granting credit, and you get a link to the invoice so you can pay it directly. A purchased block lasts 90 days from the day you buy it, so unlike your plan credit it carries across billing periods until it is spent or expires. ### Turn on auto-recharge [#turn-on-auto-recharge] Auto-recharge keeps your agents running without manual top-ups, and it is the one setting that lets Hyperagent charge your card beyond your plan price, so turn it on deliberately. You set two numbers in **Settings → Billing**: * **Threshold**: when your balance falls to this amount, a recharge triggers. * **Recharge amount**: how much credit is bought each time, charged to your saved card. It must be more than the threshold, so one recharge lifts you clearly out of the trigger zone. Each recharge buys credit at the same one-to-one rate as a manual block, and each recharged block also lasts 90 days. You have one auto-recharge setting at a time: saving new numbers replaces it, and turning it off removes it. If you turn it on while your balance is already at or below the threshold, the first recharge happens immediately. Auto-recharge is the right tool for agents that must not stop, like scheduled runs and Live Mode watches. If an agent misbehaves while auto-recharge is on, it can keep buying credit until you intervene, so pair it with a sensible **Budget limit per query** on expensive agents. ### On Shared Billing [#on-shared-billing] Members of a Shared Billing organization cannot buy credit or set up auto-recharge themselves. The organization's Owner manages billing, so ask them to top up or configure auto-recharge. See [Shared Billing](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/shared-billing). The earlier included-usage, cost-cap, and extra-billing behavior belonged to Pay As You Go and the older subscription plans, which are being retired. If you are moving off one of those plans, see [Pricing changes](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/pricing-changes) for what changes and when. ## Sharing credits through Shared Billing [#sharing-credits-through-shared-billing] Credits belong to a billing account. Separate personal accounts do not combine balances, so each person's usage is paid from their own plan and credits. Shared Billing is the exception. An eligible Owner can move invited members onto one organization balance that covers their usage. See [Shared Billing](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/shared-billing) before enabling it. ## Check your balance and usage [#check-your-balance-and-usage] Open Settings → Billing to see your current balance, account-level usage for the current billing period, your plan and promotional credit blocks, and their expiry dates. Use Command Center to compare total cost across agents. To inspect one agent's usage for the billing period by model, service, thread, or run, open **Observability → Usage** on that agent's configuration page. For one thread's metered costs and ChatGPT-subscription usage, open the thread's **Usage** tab. See [Usage and invoices](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/invoices). ## FAQs [#faqs] Open **Settings → Billing**. Your current balance, the split between plan and promotional credit, and each block's expiry date are all there. Credit from your plan and its bonus is spent within the billing period it was granted for and expires at the end of that period. A fresh grant arrives when the next period begins. Promotional and bonus blocks carry their own expiry dates, shown in **Settings → Billing**. By default, runs pause until the next period and nothing extra is billed. To keep going, [buy a credit block](#buy-a-credit-block) in **Settings → Billing**, or [turn on auto-recharge](#turn-on-auto-recharge) to add credit automatically when your balance falls to the threshold you set. Both are opt-in charges to your card. Only if you choose it. Buying a credit block is a one-time charge, and auto-recharge charges your card automatically each time your balance falls to your threshold. With both off, your plan price is the most you pay in a period. Yes. Promotional and bonus credits you already received are not affected by the pricing change. Each block keeps its own expiry date in **Settings → Billing**. See [Pricing changes](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/pricing-changes) for the details. Whichever block expires soonest. Hyperagent spends the credit with the nearest expiry date first, across promotional, bonus, and plan credit alike, so nothing expires unused while a later block still has balance. Promotional and referral credits carry their own terms, so eligibility can vary by the specific offer or code, and some apply only while you are on a paid plan. Open **Settings → Billing** to check whether the block is active and what its terms and expiry are. If it should be active and is not, contact Support. Not by default. Credits belong to a billing account. The exception is Shared Billing, where an eligible Owner moves invited members onto one organization balance. See [Shared Billing](https://www.hyperagent.com/docs/billing/shared-billing).