AI Credits

Some features use AI to do work for you, such as reading a supplier invoice and filling in the bill details. Each time one of these features runs, it uses AI credits from your organisation's shared allowance.

This article explains where your credits come from, how they're used, and how billing admins can add more credits or allow extra usage (overage) when the allowance runs out.

Every plan can use AI credits. The Essentials, Pro and Advanced plans include free AI credits for each user as part of your subscription. The Standard and Premium plans don't include any, so on those plans you'll need an AI credit pack or an overage limit to use AI features. See Moving to a plan with included credits.

Terms used in this article

• AI credits – The unit used to measure AI feature usage. Each AI request uses a set number of credits.
• Included free credits – Credits that come with the Essentials, Pro and Advanced plans. They're calculated from the number of users on your subscription.
• AI Credit Pack – An optional recurring add-on that adds a fixed number of credits to your allowance each billing period.
• Credit allowance – Your total credits for the current billing period: included free credits plus any credit pack. Depending on your billing cycle, the Billing page shows this as Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly credit allowance.
• Overage – Credits used after your credit allowance has run out. Overage is charged per credit, and only if a billing admin has turned it on and set a limit.
• Additional overage limit – The maximum number of overage credits your organisation can use in a billing period. It's set by a billing admin.
• Maximum usage – Your credit allowance plus your additional overage limit. This is the most credits your organisation can use in a billing period.

Availability and access

• Plans: All plans. Only Essentials, Pro and Advanced include free credits.
• Trial: Trial organisations get 150 free AI credits to try out AI features. You can't buy credit packs or set an overage limit during a trial.
• Permissions: Only staff with the Billing Admin privilege can see AI credit usage, buy or change credit packs, and set the overage limit. Other staff can use AI features while credits are available, but can't see or manage credits.

To give a staff member billing admin access, go to their staff privileges and set Billing Admin to Full Access under Admin Privileges.

How AI credits work

Credits are shared across your organisation

Your organisation has a single pool of credits. Any staff member using an AI feature draws from it. Credits aren't allocated to individual users.

Included free credits

On the Essentials, Pro and Advanced plans, each user on your subscription adds free credits to your organisation's allowance:

Included credits are based on the number of users on your subscription (your licensed users), not on how many staff are active.

If you pay quarterly or annually, you get the whole billing period's credits at the start of the period: 3 months' worth each quarter, or 12 months' worth each year.

Example: An Advanced organisation with 25 users on annual billing gets 25 × 60 × 12 = 18,000 included free credits for the year.

AI credit packs

A credit pack adds credits on top of your included credits. Packs are available in these sizes:

Pack prices are shown in your currency when you choose a pack. You can have one credit pack at a time. It renews with your subscription.

Credits reset each billing period

At the start of each billing period, your credit allowance is reset to your included free credits plus your credit pack.

Unused credits don't roll over. Any credits left at the end of a billing period expire, including credits from a credit pack. Credits aren't refundable.

Which features use AI credits

Features that use AI credits show the message This feature consumes AI credits.

The MCP server doesn't use AI credits. When you connect an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT to , the AI processing is done by your own AI provider, and you pay them under your own plan. See MCP.

Credits are used when the AI processes your document. If a document is processed but the extracted details aren't usable, the credits are still used.

View your AI credit usage

The AI credit usage card on the Billing page shows how many credits your organisation has used this billing period.

To view your AI credit usage

1. Click Settings, and select the Billing tab.
2. Find the AI credit usage card on the right of the page.

The card shows:

The usage bar changes colour as you use your allowance:

• Green: less than 80% used
• Orange: 80% or more used. The message You have reached over 80% of your credits appears.
• Red: your allowance is used up

The account owner is also sent an email when the organisation has used 80% of its AI credits, and another when all credits are used. If overage is set up, your billing admins are emailed when your organisation starts using overage credits.

Add or change an AI credit pack

Add a credit pack when your included credits aren't enough, or if you're on a plan with no included credits.

To add or change an AI credit pack

1. Click Settings, and select the Billing tab.
2. In the Subscription & account usage card, click Explore AI Credit Packs.
3. In Choose an AI credit pack, select the pack you want. Your current pack is marked (Current).
4. Click Update.
5. Read the summary in Confirm Your Subscription Update, then click Confirm.

What happens next depends on the change you made:

While a move to a smaller pack (or another downgrade) is scheduled, you can't make upgrades to your subscription. A banner on the Billing page shows the scheduled change. Cancel the scheduled change first if you want to upgrade instead.

The Explore AI Credit Packs button isn't available if your subscription is being cancelled or has a failed payment.

Allow overage when your allowance runs out

By default, your organisation's overage limit is 0. This means AI features stop when your credit allowance runs out and can't be used again until your next billing period. To keep AI features running, a billing admin can allow overage up to a limit they choose.

Overage credits are charged per credit, at a higher rate than credit pack credits:

Overage is billed monthly in arrears, based on what you've actually used. You never pay for more than your limit.

To set your overage limit

1. Click Settings, and select the Billing tab.
2. In the AI credit usage card, click Manage AI Credits.
3. In Set AI Credit Overage Limit, drag the slider or enter the number of overage credits you want to allow. The limit can be set from 0 to 10,000, in multiples of 100.

4. Check the summary:

   • AI credits included in your plan
   • Additional Credit Limit (Overage)
   • Maximum AI credits available

   The box underneath shows the price per credit and your maximum overage charge at this limit.

5. Click Update.
6. Read the summary in Confirm Your Subscription Update, then click Confirm.

You don't need a credit pack to set an overage limit. If you're on Essentials, Pro or Advanced without a pack, overage starts once your included free credits are used. On Standard or Premium without a pack, all AI usage is charged as overage.

To stop overage, set the limit to 0. Overage already used in the current billing period is still billed.

Overage stops straight away if your subscription is being cancelled, or if a payment for your credit pack or overage fails. Your remaining allowance can still be used.

What happens when you run out of credits

When your credit allowance and any overage limit are used up, features that use AI credits stop until your next billing period, or until a billing admin adds a credit pack or raises the overage limit.

• AI bill extraction: Instead of extracting the bill, shows Insufficient AI credits available for bill OCR. You can still enter the bill details yourself.
• Bills Inbox: Forwarded invoices stay in your Bills Inbox and no draft bill is created. Once credits are available again, you can extract them from the inbox.

If you're not a billing admin, ask one of your organisation's billing admins to add credits or adjust the overage limit.

Moving to a plan with included credits

If you're on the Standard or Premium plan, you don't get any included free credits, so every AI request comes from a credit pack or is charged as overage. Moving to Essentials, Pro or Advanced adds free credits for each user, and you can still add a credit pack if you need more.

To compare plans, click Explore Plans on the Billing page.

FAQs

• Do unused credits carry over to the next billing period?

  No. Your allowance resets at the start of each billing period, and any unused credits, including credit pack credits, expire.

• Can I get a refund for unused credits?

  No. Credits aren't refundable. If you move to a smaller pack or remove your pack, the change takes effect from your next billing period, so you keep the credits you've paid for until then.

• Will I be charged automatically if we run out of credits?

  Only if a billing admin has set an overage limit above 0. With the default limit of 0, AI features stop when your allowance runs out and you're not charged for any extra usage. With a limit set, you're charged only for overage credits you actually use, up to that limit.

• Can I give individual staff their own credit limits?

  No. Credits are shared across your whole organisation.

• If we add users part-way through a billing period, do we get more credits?

  Yes. Included free credits are based on the number of users on your subscription, so adding users increases your included credits.

• Does connecting Claude, ChatGPT or another AI assistant through the MCP server use credits?

  No. MCP requests are processed by your own AI provider, therefore are billed through that provider.

• Can we buy credits during our free trial?

  No. Trial organisations get 150 free AI credits to try AI features. Credit packs and overage are available once you subscribe.

Related articles

• AI Document Extraction for Bills
• Change subscription plan
• View your subscription invoices
• About the AI receipt scanner
• MCP