Credits

Credits buy AI generation: turning a prompt or a photo into a 3D model, re-texturing one you already made, rebuilding one from a described change, and generating or editing images. Once your free monthly questions to the site assistant run out, they can also pay for its answers, one per answer, if you choose. A new account starts with 5. This page lists what every operation costs, where more credits come from, what happens when you run out, and whether they expire.

What a credit buys#

3D generation add-ons#

The base cost is 1 for fast draft, 2 for hi-fi. Everything below is added on top of it:

• Text prompt, fast draft, standard mesh, 2k texture: 1 credit.
• Photo, fast draft, standard mesh: 2 credits.
• Text prompt, hi-fi, ultra mesh: 4 credits.
• Photo, hi-fi, ultra mesh, 8k texture, refinement pass: 9 credits.

Where credits come from#

Both plans also carry a monthly dollar print credit — $5 on Maker, $10 on Pro. That is a separate balance in cents, applied to a print order, and it is not interchangeable with generation credits in either direction.

The response is { url, sessionId }; send the customer to url. Signed-out callers get 401 'Authentication required', and 503 'Stripe not configured' means billing is switched off in that environment. POST /api/billing/checkout is the equivalent route on the billing surface: it takes the same three packs under type credit_topup and the same two plans under type subscription, and it refuses print orders outright because a print has to be priced from the stored model rather than from a number the browser sent.

Do they expire?#

No. Generation credits are a plain running balance with no expiry date and no monthly reset. A plan's allowance is added to whatever you already hold each time an invoice is paid, so an unused month carries forward. Cancelling a plan clears the plan flag and zeroes the dollar print credit, but the generation balance you have already accumulated is left alone and stays spendable.

Running out#

The studio warns you first. On an account without a paid plan, an amber N credits remaining appears once the balance is down to 2. When a run costs more than you hold, the button area reads Insufficient credits — you have X but need Y and Generate is disabled. Signed out, the studio offers Sign up for 5 free credits instead.

Credits are checked and deducted before the engine is called, so an underfunded request is refused rather than half-run. The refusal is machine-readable and tells you exactly how short you are.

{
  "error": "no_credits",
  "message": "This generation costs 4 credits but you only have 2. Add credits to continue.",
  "needsPayment": true,
  "creditsRequired": 4,
  "creditsAvailable": 2
}

needsPayment is true until you have paid us for credits at least once — buying any pack or paying any plan invoice flips it. It is a hint for the interface about which prompt to show, not a permission.

Refunds#

Because the charge happens first, a failure has to give the credits back. These do:

• A generation that returns a non-2xx response or throws is refunded on the spot and its history row is marked failed, and History says failed — credit refunded.
• A generation whose model was made but could not be saved is cancelled and refunded, rather than handing you a link that expires.
• A generation still unfinished after 60 minutes is expired by a sweep, marked failed, and refunded.
• A re-texture that fails after the credit was taken is refunded the same way.
• An image job that fails, or finishes with no picture, gives its credit back.
• A site assistant answer paid with a credit that fails to arrive gives the credit back.

Some requests are refused before they would cost anything: a prompt the moderation check rejects, a photo of a flat picture, and an image file that cannot be read. None of them spends a credit.

Limits per account: 20 generations an hour, 40 image generations and 40 image edits an hour, 30 re-textures an hour, and 120 exact model edits an hour.

Every refund is written against an idempotency key derived from the generation id, so the live request and the sweep can race without paying out twice. A refund restores generation credits only — it never changes your plan or your paid-account state.

Checking your balance#

Your balance is attached to your session and re-read on every request, so it is current on any signed-in page without a refresh. The generation API also returns creditsCharged on every successful run, which is the cheapest way for an integration to reconcile what it spent. There is one balance per account, keyed on your email address: a generation started from the Chrome extension spends the same credits as one started on the site.