# Credits and billing > What credits are and what spends them, how to read Billing and Usage, buy credits, set up auto-reload and a spend limit, and change or cancel your plan. Source: https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/credits-and-billing ## What a credit is [Credits](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#credits) are the unit Orbital meters usage in. They are dollar-denominated, so any model your plan allows can spend them. Frontier models use them faster. These spend credits: - Model calls in Chat, workflows, agents and dashboards. - Web searches, in Chat and by agents. - Indexing the documents you add, at a small rate. - Backtests, in a project where backtest pricing is on. See the last section. Viewing dashboards, watchlists and results spends nothing. Credits belong to the workspace: every member and project draws on one balance. ## Plan credits and purchased credits Each plan includes credits every month, and [Pricing](https://orbitalaip.com/pricing) lists how many. Paid plans refill at each renewal, and Free at the start of each calendar month. Unused plan credits do not carry over. On Pro and Max you can also buy credits. They are spent only after the plan credits run out. They do not expire at month end, and they stay with the workspace if it moves to Free. ## When credits run out AI work stops when plan and purchased credits are both gone. - Chat shows **Out of credits** with a **Top up** button. - A workflow or dashboard run that typically costs more than your balance is refused before it starts, with **Not enough credits**. Nothing is charged. A workflow with no run history is never refused on cost. - A run that runs dry part-way fails with an error beginning **Monthly AI credits exhausted**. On Max, provider keys you connect under [AI Models](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/ai-models) take over when credits run out. The provider then bills you directly. ## Open Billing Only [workspace owners and admins](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/members-and-roles) have **Billing** and **Usage** in their menus. Only they can change the plan, buy credits or manage cards. 1. Click your avatar at the bottom of the sidebar. 2. Under **Workspace**, click **Billing**. Or go to [app.orbitalaip.com/settings/workspace/billing](https://app.orbitalaip.com/settings/workspace/billing). The page is titled **Billing & Plan**. On Free and Pro, the avatar menu also offers **Upgrade plan**, which opens the same page. ## What the Billing page shows From top to bottom: - The plan card names your plan, such as **Max plan**, with its monthly credits and, on a paid plan, its renewal date. Its button reads **Adjust plan**, or **Upgrade plan** on Free. - **Credit usage** holds the **Plan credits used** bar and **View usage details**. On Pro and Max it adds your **Purchased credits balance** and **Buy credits**. On Free the balance shows only while purchased credits remain. It warns **Running low on credits** once your balance falls below a fifth of the plan's monthly credits. - **Spend limits**, **Payment Methods**, **Billing History** and **Billing email** follow. **Billing History** lists your recent charges, each with a downloadable invoice. - **What your plan allows** is read-only: request limits, models, and caps on dashboards, workflows and agents. - **Cancel plan** comes last, under **Danger zone**. Payments run through Stripe inside the page, with no redirect. ## Buy credits Buying credits needs Pro or Max. 1. **Click Buy credits** It is on the **Credit usage** card. 2. **Pick a pack** Choose 500, 1,000, 2,500, 5,000 or 10,000 credits, or **Other** for a custom amount in whole dollars. 3. **Pay** Use a saved card or enter a new one, then click the **Pay** button, which shows the amount. After **Payment received**, the credits reach your balance within moments. The invoice joins **Billing History**. ## Auto-reload Auto-reload buys a pack when your balance runs low, so your workflows do not pause. It is off by default, and it needs Pro or Max and a saved card. 1. **Open the settings** Click **Set up auto reload**, or the **Auto reload off** link. 2. **Set the trigger** **When balance falls below** defaults to 100 credits, plan and purchased together. 3. **Choose the pack and the cap** **Reload amount** defaults to 1,000 credits. **Monthly cap** is the spend limit below. 4. **Click Turn on auto-reload** > [!NOTE] > While auto-reload is on, Orbital charges your saved card without asking each time, up to the monthly cap. Each failed charge sends a notice to the billing email, and two in a row turn auto-reload off. Its settings then read **Auto-reload was paused**. Update the card under **Payment Methods** and turn it back on. ## Spend limits **Spend limits** is a monthly ceiling, in dollars, on what auto-reload buys. It is the same setting as **Monthly cap**, and it saves as you type. Plan credits and credits you buy yourself never count towards it. When the next pack would pass the ceiling, auto-reload skips it. It buys nothing more until the billing period rolls over or you raise the ceiling. The workspace owner gets one notification for that period, in the **Billing** category of [notifications](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/alerts-and-notifications/notifications). Agents, tasks and workflow batches carry their own credit limits. See [Set up an agent](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/agents/set-up-an-agent), [Tasks](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/agents/tasks) and [Run workflows and batch runs](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/dashboards/overview#run-workflows-and-batch-runs). ## Change or cancel your plan **Adjust plan**, or **Upgrade plan** on Free, opens **Plans & pricing** with Free, Pro and Max side by side. - From Free, **Upgrade to Pro** or **Upgrade to Max** asks for a card and starts the plan at once. - From Pro, **Switch to Max** applies at once. You pay the difference, the extra credits arrive, and the renewal date stays. - From Max, **Switch to Pro** waits for the next renewal. Until then a banner on the Billing page offers **Keep Max**, which cancels the switch. To cancel, or to move a paid plan to Free: 1. Click **Cancel** under **Cancel plan**, or **Downgrade to Free** in **Plans & pricing**. 2. Click **Cancel at period end**. When the period ends, the workspace moves to Free with its data kept and auto-reload off. Until then, **Resume** on the **Plan is cancelling** card undoes it. ## Usage **View usage details** opens **Usage**, which Settings also lists. - **Credits used this month**, and **Your API-key spend (est.)** for calls on your own keys. - **Credit Spend**, credits by day, with **Total Credits**, **Total Requests** and **Credit Balance**. - **Cost by Workflow** and **Cost by Agent**, with credits per run and a 30-day projection. - Tabs for **API capabilities** (one row per model), **Users** and **Projects**. The date picker opens on a 14-day range and sets the chart, **Total Credits**, **Total Requests** and the tabs. **Credit Balance** shows your balance now. **Credits used this month** and the two cost tables cover the current billing month. ## Backtests Orbital decides whether backtests are priced, for all projects or for chosen ones; there is no setting for it. In a project that is not priced, backtests spend no credits. The run dialog reads **Credits: pricing TBD**, and the **Runs** tab lists the run as **not charged**. On the **Report** tab, **Run properties** reads **Not charged (pricing preview)** with what the run would have billed. In a priced project, the run dialog shows the credits first, as **about N credits** or **up to N credits**. Orbital holds that amount, then bills what ran and never more. A failed run bills nothing, and a run your balance cannot cover does not start. Your own provider keys never pay for backtests. The same rules apply to runs from Chat, agents, Claude and ChatGPT. See [Run a backtest](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/backtesting/run-a-backtest).