How credits work
Prepaid credits, per-tool costs, holds, and what happens at zero balance.
The Workbench uses prepaid credits: every billed tool has a fixed credit cost, and new accounts start with welcome credits. No subscription, no minimum. Current prices and amounts always live on the pricing page.
What costs credits
| Tool | Billing | Billed when |
|---|---|---|
analyze_logs | paid, per session | The analysis runs — empty logs and logs with no Error/Fatal entries are free |
tidy_assets | paid, per session | A report is produced — empty or unparseable inventories are free |
make_tool | paid, per run | You approve the generated script — blocked, declined, and cancelled runs are free |
Everything else — topup and the five research tools — is free, at any balance.
Holds: how a run reserves credits
Before a billed tool starts, the Workbench reserves the tool's full cost from your balance:
- Reserved credits are unavailable to other calls until the run finishes — concurrent billed calls each hold their own cost.
- On success the hold is consumed; on failure, a free outcome, or a decline, it's released back to your balance.
- Holds expire on their own after 15 minutes — a stuck run can't lock your credits forever.
- Sessions are retry-safe: re-running the same analysis or audit session never bills twice.
If a hold can't be placed — balance too low, or too much already held by in-flight calls — the tool refuses to start and your client relays the message. Nothing is half-run.
Personal and team wallets
Every account has a personal wallet. A team adds a shared team wallet: members working with team context spend from the team balance, and anyone can top up either wallet.
At zero balance
Free tools keep working, and so does topup — it exists precisely for this moment. When a billed tool refuses to start, your client relays the insufficient-credits message and can open a checkout for you in the same breath. See Top up credits.
Where to see it all
The portal's Billing page shows both wallets; Usage shows per-tool call counts; Invoices lists your receipts. See View usage and invoices.
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