In AI pricing, a credit is a unit of prepaid usage that a product converts into actions, such as a prompt, an image, a second of video or an agent step. Each product sets its own exchange rate, so one credit might be worth $0.25 at Lovable and about $0.001 at Firecrawl. To compare, divide the plan price by the credits included, then multiply by the credits a task uses.
Key takeaways
- A credit is a private currency. Its value is whatever the vendor's exchange rate says.
- Price per credit = plan price ÷ credits included. Cost per task = credits used × price per credit.
- Credit values in 2026 range from tens of cents (Lovable Pro $0.25, Business $0.50) to a fraction of a cent, so never compare raw credit counts.
- Check rollover, expiry and what happens at zero before you commit.
Quick quiz. Which costs more: a Lovable credit or a Firecrawl credit?
A Lovable credit is worth about $0.25. A Firecrawl credit is worth about $0.001. One is roughly 250 times the other.
So when someone says "it's only 10 credits," the right answer is: 10 credits of what?
What is a credit in AI pricing?
An AI credit is a unit of usage that a product sells you, then converts into work. One prompt, one image, one second of video, one page scraped, one step of an agent.
Each company sets two exchange rates:
- Credits to dollars. What you pay for each credit.
- Credits to tasks. How many credits each action uses.
You control neither. That's why a credit is best thought of as a private currency, a bit like casino chips. (The house always knows exactly what a chip is worth. You should too.)
What is one AI credit worth?
Here's the effective price per credit on real 2026 plans, worked out from each plan's price and allowance. Prices checked 27 October 2026.
| Product | Price per credit | What a credit buys |
|---|---|---|
| Lovable Pro | $0.25 | "Make the button gray" = 0.50 credits |
| Runway Standard | $0.024 | 12 credits = one second of Gen-4.5 video |
| Perplexity | $0.01 (pegged) | Agent work in Perplexity Computer |
| HubSpot | $0.01 | 50 credits = one resolved support conversation |
| Salesforce Flex Credits | $0.005 | 20 credits = one standard agent action |
| Adobe Firefly Pro | $0.005 | Premium generations |
| Firecrawl Standard | About $0.001 | One page scraped |
There are really three kinds of credit hiding in that table:
- Dollar-pegged credits (Perplexity, HubSpot, GitHub Copilot): a credit is a fixed amount of money.
- Rate-card credits (Lovable, Salesforce, Firecrawl): abstract units with a published table of costs.
- Capacity credits (Snowflake, Midjourney GPU hours): credits that meter compute or time.
How do you work out what a task really costs?
Two steps.
Price per credit = Plan price ÷ Credits included Cost per task = Credits the task uses × Price per credit
What does a 10-second AI video cost on Runway?
Runway Standard is $15 for 625 credits: $15 ÷ 625 = $0.024 per credit.
Gen-4.5 video uses 12 credits per second, so a 10-second clip uses 120 credits.
120 × $0.024 = about $2.88 per clip, before any retries.
Do this sum for the three tasks you'll use most. It's the only honest way to compare two credit-priced products.
Credit Pack DesignerTurn your cost per action into a credit rate card with healthy margins.Open the free tool →AI credits vs tokens
These get mixed up constantly.
A token is a chunk of text an AI model reads or writes, and it's how model vendors like OpenAI and Anthropic charge. A credit is what the app built on top of that model charges you. One credit might cover tokens, GPU time, search calls and hosting all at once.
In other words, the app buys tokens and sells credits. The gap between the two is its margin, which is why AI companies watch their AI gross margin so closely.
Questions to ask before you buy credits
- What does a typical task cost in credits? Is there a published table?
- Do unused credits roll over, and for how long?
- What happens at zero: hard stop, slow mode or automatic top-up?
- Can an admin cap usage per person or per project?
- Can the vendor change the rate card, and how much notice will they give?
Design credits customers understand
Turn your cost per action into a clear credit rate card with the free Credit Pack Designer.
What to do next
If you're buying, run the two-step sum above on your three most common tasks. If you're selling, read the full credit-based pricing guide and the plain-English definition of credit-based pricing. For the bigger picture of how AI products charge in 2026, start with the AI pricing guide and check live rates in the AI Pricing Index.
Back to the subscription and pricing glossary.
Frequently asked questions
Do AI credits expire?
Often, yes, and the rules vary a lot. ElevenLabs rolls unused credits over for two months, up to three times the monthly quota. Lovable's monthly plan credits expire two months after issue, while its Pro top-ups last 12 months. Adobe Firefly credits reset monthly. Free-tier daily credits almost never roll over. Read the rollover rule before buying a big pack.
Are AI credits refundable?
Usually not, once a billing period has started, though terms differ by company and by country. In Australia, the consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law still apply to consumers whatever the terms say. Some vendors also refund credits for failed work: Clay stopped charging for lookups that return no data in March 2026. Check the vendor's terms and keep records if a task fails.
Why does the same task cost different credits on different days?
Because many rate cards charge by effort. An AI agent that takes more steps, uses a bigger model or reads more context burns more credits, even for a request that looks the same to you. Good products show an estimate before an expensive task runs. Exa, for example, lets the caller pick an effort level with a known price per request.
What is a dollar-pegged credit?
A credit with a fixed cash value set by the vendor. Perplexity's 100 credits equal $1, HubSpot's extra credits cost $0.01 each, and GitHub Copilot's AI Credits are denominated in dollars. Pegged credits are the easiest to understand, because you can always convert them back to money in your head.
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Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- Lovable: pricing (checked 27 Oct 2026)
- Runway: pricing (checked 27 Oct 2026)
- Salesforce: Agentforce pricing (checked 27 Oct 2026)
- Firecrawl: pricing (checked 27 Oct 2026)
- Perplexity Help Center: How credits work
- ElevenLabs: pricing (checked 27 Oct 2026)
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.