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# How Credits Work – Costs, Balance and Buying More

AutoPhish uses credits for everything that is sent or scanned. All channels draw from one shared pool, so you can freely decide how much to spend on e-mail, SMS or QR code simulations.

## What costs how much

| Action | Credits |
| ---- | ---- |
| Simulation e-mail | 1 per recipient |
| Unique AI-generated e-mail per recipient | 2 per recipient |
| SMS | 2 per SMS segment (160 characters, 70 with special characters) |
| QR code by e-mail | 2 per delivered recipient |
| Printed QR poster location | 10 once, when the location is saved |
| Test e-mails to yourself | Free (up to 10 per hour) |

Security scans: one baseline scan per scan cadence of your plan is included. Additional scans and deeper scan types use credits.

Credits are only charged for successful deliveries. Failed or expired deliveries are refunded.

For the number of credits included in each plan, see https://autophish.io/pricing.

## Where to see your balance

Go to **Settings → Billing**.

- **Overview** shows **Credits this period**: how many included credits are left, how many were used and how many are reserved, plus a breakdown by e-mails, SMS segments and security scanning.
- **Credits** shows included and purchased credits separately, credits reserved for queued work and your purchase history with invoices.
- **Usage** shows which company spent how many credits on what, and can be exported as CSV. This is useful if you manage several companies under one subscription.

![Settings - Billing - Credits this period](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/4/3/7/4/437439cedb096800/billing-credits-overview_1f06q5g.png)


## Included vs. purchased credits

- **Included credits** come with your plan and are renewed every billing period. Unused included credits do **not** roll over.
- **Purchased credits** are one-time packs. They **never expire** and stay available after renewals, plan changes or cancellation.
- Credits are used in this order: included credits first, then purchased credits, then paid overage where your contract includes it.
- **Reserved** credits are held for campaign runs that are queued. They are released again if they are not needed.

Credits are shared across all companies covered by your subscription.

## Buy more credits

1. Go to **Settings → Billing**.
2. Click **Buy credits** (on the Overview or the Credits tab).
3. Choose a package and click **Continue to Stripe**.
4. Complete the payment. Back in AutoPhish, the status changes from "Confirming payment" to "Credits added". Click **Refresh** if needed.

Good to know:

- Only the **subscription owner** can buy credits, and an active paid subscription is required. Other team members see who the billing owner is.
- Credits are added once the payment is confirmed. If the status still says pending, do not pay a second time.
- If you cancel the checkout, no credits are added and the purchase shows as "Expired".
- An invoice is available in the purchase history.

## What happens when credits run out

- The campaign wizard shows a **Campaign credit estimate** before launch. If there are not enough credits, it tells you how many are needed and lets you buy more or change your plan. Your campaign draft is kept for 24 hours meanwhile.
- If a scheduled run hits the limit, it does not send and the campaign shows "Credit limit reached".
- Free trials always stop at their credit limit.

## Tips to save credits

- Keep SMS short and avoid emojis or typographic quotes – they can double the number of segments.
- Use "Unique message per recipient" only where you really need it.
- Plan recurring campaigns with your included credits in mind – unused included credits do not carry over to the next period.