---
title: "How AI credits work"
description: "What each AI action costs in credits, how many credits each plan includes every month, how credit packs work, and when you are not charged."
url: https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/ai-credits/
collection: "AI with citations"
section: "Basics"
updated: 2026-10-18
publisher: "PDFBetter (AI Generated Inc.)"
---

# How AI credits work

> Every AI action costs a fixed number of credits, shown on its button before you run it. Your plan includes credits every month; an **AI credit pack** adds 500 credits for $5 that never expire and are used after the monthly ones.

- Counts toward: AI credits

Do it in PDFBetter: https://pdfbetter.com/app/settings/billing/

PDFBetter counts AI use in credits instead of tokens, so you know the price before you click. The cost appears in a tag next to every AI button, before you click. If an action would cost more than you have, the panel says **This needs … credits; you have … left** and doesn't run it.

| Per month | No account | Free | Pro | Business |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AI credits | 5 | 20 | 500 | 2,000 |

"Unlimited" is subject to fair use; "—" means not included.

## What things cost

| Action | Credits |
| --- | --- |
| Chat message (Ask) | 1 |
| Summary | 2 |
| Search by meaning | 1 |
| Translate | 1 per page |
| Proofread | 1 per page |
| AI edit | 2 |
| Detect form fields | 3 |
| Prepare for signing | 3 |
| Create a document | 5 |
| AI OCR | 2 per page transcribed |
| Restore a scan | 2 per page |
| Extraction | 1 per page read |
| Answer across a workspace | 2 |
| Brief or slide outline | 4 |
| Quiz | 2 |
| Audio brief | 6 |
| Mind map | 3 |
| AI comparison of two versions | 3 |
| Redaction suggestions | 1 per page |

## Monthly credits and packs

- Monthly credits renew each period. Unused monthly credits don't carry over.
- An **AI credit pack** adds 500 credits for $5. Pack credits never expire and are used only after the monthly ones run out.
- Without an account you get 5 credits on guest drafts. A free account gets 20 a month, with no card.

1. **Check your balance**: The **AI credits** pill in the top bar shows what's left. Click it to see **Monthly left**, **From packs** and **What things cost**.
2. **Top up**: In the pill, click **Top up**. Or open [Plan & usage](https://pdfbetter.com/app/settings/billing/) from the account menu and click **AI credit pack** under **Credits**.
3. **Or upgrade**: A paid plan raises the monthly allowance. See [pricing](https://pdfbetter.com/pricing/) for every plan.

## When you're not charged

- If a request fails before the AI produces anything, the credits are given back. A stopped or interrupted chat answer says **Nothing was charged.**
- Per-page actions charge only for pages that worked. Pages that fail say "not charged", and **AI OCR** charges only the pages it actually transcribes (pages that already read well are free).
- Reopening a saved result from **Previous results** doesn't run the AI again and uses no credits.
- Pages beyond your plan's page cap are skipped and listed, not charged.

### It says "Your plan’s AI credits for this period are used up".

Your monthly credits are gone and you have no pack credits. Wait for the next period ([when allowances reset](https://help.pdfbetter.com/account-billing/monthly-limits-and-credit-packs/)), buy a pack, or upgrade.

### Where do purchased credits show up?

Under **From packs** in the **AI credits** pill, and under **Credits** on **Plan & usage**, once checkout completes. If purchases aren't available yet, the pill says so and nothing is charged.

### Do connected agents and automations use the same credits?

Yes. AI work started by an agent or automation draws from the same AI credits as the app.

## Related articles

- [Open the AI assistant and what each tab does](https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/ai-assistant-overview.md): In the editor, click the yellow ✨ AI assistant button in the top bar (or More (⋯) → AI assistant). From the dashboard, use the ✨ AI assistant menu and pick a document. The panel has nine tabs, from Ask to Scan.
- [Extract data from many PDFs into a table](https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/extract-pdf-data-table.md): Go to Extractions, choose a preset or define fields, pick documents and click Extract. Review each value against the quote it came from, approve or correct it, then export XLSX, CSV or JSON. Each page read costs 1 credit.
- [What happens when you reach a monthly limit](https://help.pdfbetter.com/account-billing/monthly-limits-and-credit-packs.md): When you use up a monthly allowance, PDFBetter stops before the task and offers to wait for the reset, buy a Day Pass or upgrade. For AI credits and fax pages you can also buy a pack that never expires.
- [Compare the Free, Pro and Business plans](https://help.pdfbetter.com/account-billing/compare-plans.md): Free costs nothing and has no end date. Pro is $15 a month for one person, with unlimited downloads and signature requests. Business is $24 per seat a month and adds teams, branding, bulk send, the API and the largest spreadsheet-fill allowance.
- [Connect Claude, Cursor and other AI agents (MCP)](https://help.pdfbetter.com/automation/connect-ai-agents-mcp.md): Open Settings → Agents (MCP), name a key, choose its permissions and click Create agent key. Copy the ready-made setup for your client. Each tool call counts as one agent & automation run.

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Source: https://help.pdfbetter.com/ai/ai-credits/ · PDFBetter Help Center · Last checked against the product 2026-10-18. Questions: support@pdfbetter.com