Credits & usage
What a credit is, what spends one, and how to make a balance last.
Credits are Kortix's unit of platform usage. Every account has a credit balance, and running work draws it down. The more complex or lengthy the task, the more credits it takes.
Model calls are the main driver. Credits are spent on input tokens (your prompt and the context around it) and on output tokens (what the agent writes back), and the rate depends on which model tier you pointed the session at. Billing and the balance itself are account-level — see Accounts & access.
Two kinds of credit
An account can hold both at once, and they behave differently:
- Expiring credits — included with a paid subscription and renewed automatically each month on your subscription date. They expire at the end of each billing cycle.
- Non-expiring credits — they carry over month to month and never expire. Top-up purchases, refunds, and promotional grants are all non-expiring.
:::info[Spend order] Expiring credits are always consumed first. Non-expiring credits are only drawn on once the expiring balance reaches zero, so a monthly allowance can never silently eat a top-up you paid for. :::
Platform rates
Kortix applies a markup on top of provider cost to cover the infrastructure the sandboxes run on, the security work around them, and continued development. The rate depends on what you are buying:
| Service | Markup | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| AI models | 20% | Every LLM API cost: input tokens, output tokens, and prompt caching. |
| Tool calls | 50% | Web search, web scraping, and the other third-party tools a session can reach. |
| Image search | 100% | Priced separately from the other tools, and higher. |
| Your own API key | 10% | A flat platform fee replaces the model markup — you pay your provider directly. |
Bringing your own key is the one row that is not a markup on a bill Kortix pays. You settle with your provider, and Kortix charges a flat 10% platform fee on the usage instead. Free-tier accounts pay no fee at all.
Getting more credits
| Source | Kind | How you get it |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription credits | Expiring | Included with a paid plan, renewed automatically each month. |
| Top-up credits | Non-expiring | Bought when you need them. Available to premium members. |
| Promotional and event grants | Non-expiring | Bonus credits from events, promotions, or referrals. |
| Refunds | Non-expiring | Credits returned after a technical issue or a failed task. |
When paid credits arrive
Credits follow settled payments. A payment that is accepted but not yet settled adds nothing to the balance until it settles.
- Top-ups paid by bank debit — card payments settle at once. A bank debit (for example ACH) can take several business days; the credits arrive when it settles. A failed debit adds nothing.
- Auto top-up — the same rule applies. While one bank-debit top-up is still settling, auto top-up does not start a second charge.
- Adding seats mid-cycle — each added seat is charged now, prorated for the rest of the billing cycle. Once that charge is paid, the balance grows by the same prorated share of the seat's monthly allowance.
- Removing seats mid-cycle — the lower seat count is billed from your next renewal. The unused part of the current cycle is not refunded, and credits already granted stay in the balance.
- Upgrading a plan mid-cycle — the price difference is charged now, and the upgrade applies only when that payment succeeds. The balance then grows by the prorated share of the new plan's monthly allowance. Your next renewal grants the full allowance.
Tracking your usage
Two places in settings, for two different questions:
- Settings → Billing — the current balance, broken down into expiring and non-expiring.
- Settings → Usage — consumption per thread and conversation, which is how you find the sessions that cost the most.
Making a balance last
- Match the model to the work. Point simple work at a smaller model and keep the frontier tier for reasoning that needs it. The rate difference between tiers is far larger than the difference in output quality on an easy task.
- Give clear instructions. A well-defined task cuts the back-and-forth with the agent, and every round trip is tokens.
- Watch the Usage tab. Find the conversations that consume the most and adjust those first.
- Stay in the thread. Repeated turns in one thread hit prompt caching, which reduces token cost significantly.
If a number looks wrong
If a figure here does not match what you were charged, email support@kortix.com or ask in Discord. We are committed to fair and transparent billing — if you believe there is an error in your credit usage, contact support and we will investigate promptly.