# Monthly Credits

Every paid plan comes with a pool of credits that refills automatically at the start of each billing period. Credits are the single unit that pays for everything your AI employees do: thinking, tool calls, media generation, voice, and meetings. There is nothing to top up manually each month; your allowance is just there again when the new period starts.

Credits are the billing unit behind every AI employee action on the platform. Instead of separate meters for model calls, tool use, voice minutes, and media generation, everything is converted into one number: credits spent from your workspace balance. Paid plans attach a monthly credit quota to that balance, and the quota resets automatically at the start of each billing period, whether or not you used all of it the month before.

The reset is calendar-driven, not usage-driven. Your plan defines a monthly allowance (for example, the Starter plan's pool versus the Leader plan's larger one), the platform tracks how much of it you have burned this period, and at the next billing date the counter goes back to the full amount. Unused credits do not carry forward: a light month does not stack into a bigger allowance the next month.

What makes this different from a one-time credit grant or a pay-as-you-go top-up is the automatic, recurring nature of it. A promo code or a referral bonus is a fixed amount you redeem once. A credit pack is a manual purchase you make when you want more. Monthly credits need no action from you at all: as long as your subscription is active, the quota renews on its own every period, and if you run out early you can still buy a top-up pack or upgrade rather than wait out the month with a locked chat composer.

The Free plan works differently on purpose: it grants a lifetime pool that never resets, rather than a monthly one, since there is no recurring payment to anchor a monthly cycle to.

## How the monthly reset works

Your workspace has one credit balance shared by every employee in it, and one monthly limit tied to your plan. Usage from any employee, on any channel, draws down the same pool. At the next billing date the platform sets your used amount back to zero and the full allowance becomes available again, automatically, with no manual renewal step.

This differs from the Free plan's 2,000-credit grant, which is lifetime rather than monthly: it is issued once at signup and never refills, since the Free plan has no recurring billing period to reset against. Paid plans are the ones with a true monthly cycle.

## What happens near and at zero

You get warned before you run out: an in-app notification fires at 25% remaining, a more urgent one at 15%, and a final one when the balance hits zero. Each level only fires again if things get worse, so you are not repeatedly notified at the same threshold.

Hitting zero pauses AI work rather than breaking anything. The chat composer locks with an upgrade prompt, any active streaming response stops, and voice calls end. Scheduled and autonomous work is skipped, not cancelled: your schedules stay active and pick back up on their own once credits are available again, either from the next monthly reset or from an on-demand top-up.

## How It Works

**Your credit pool refills on a fixed schedule tied to your billing period**

Each paid plan defines a monthly credit limit. As your employees work, the platform deducts credits from that limit for every model call, tool use, voice minute, meeting minute, and piece of generated media. The credit bar in the top-right corner of your workspace shows the running balance and the percentage remaining, turning yellow under 25% and red under 10%.

At the start of each new billing period, the counter resets to your plan's full monthly amount regardless of how much was left over. This is a hard reset, not a rollover: credits you did not use in one period are not added to the next. If your balance hits zero before the period ends, chat locks with an upgrade prompt, active voice calls end, and scheduled or autonomous work is skipped without erroring; it simply resumes once the new period's credits are available, or once you buy more.

## Use Cases

### Running a steady month-to-month workload

A team that uses its AI employees consistently every month relies on the monthly reset to keep working without manually renewing anything: the allowance is simply there again at the start of each billing period.

### Budgeting AI spend against a predictable ceiling

Because the monthly limit is fixed per plan and resets on a known schedule, a team can plan its AI usage around that ceiling instead of tracking a shrinking, non-renewing balance.

### Recovering automatically after a heavy usage month

A month with unusually heavy voice calls, media generation, or a burst of automated tasks that exhausts the monthly pool early does not require any recovery action beyond waiting for the reset or buying a top-up; scheduled work resumes on its own once credits are available.

## FAQ

### Do unused monthly credits carry over to next month?

No. Monthly plan credits reset at the start of each billing period, and whatever was left unused does not add to the next period's allowance. The Free plan is the exception: its 2,000 credits are a one-time lifetime grant that never resets and never refills.

### What happens if I run out of credits before my next reset?

AI work pauses rather than failing. Chat locks with an upgrade prompt, active voice calls end, and scheduled or autonomous work is skipped without erroring until credits return. You can wait for the next monthly reset, buy a credit pack, or upgrade your plan to resume immediately.

### Is the monthly credit amount the same on every plan?

No. Each paid plan defines its own monthly credit limit, with higher-tier plans carrying larger monthly pools. You can see your plan's exact allowance, and how much of it you have used, from the credit bar dropdown or the full Credit Usage page under Settings, Subscription.

### Can I top up before my monthly credits run out?

Yes. You can buy an on-demand credit pack at any time, on any plan, in addition to your monthly allowance. This is separate from the automatic monthly reset and does not change when your next reset happens.

## Where Monthly Credits fits

Monthly Credits is part of How you run the account itself.

Sign in the way your company already does, decide who can do what, and keep the money side legible. Credits, plans, invoices, referrals, and the controls that decide who reaches which part of the workspace.

- [How you run the account itself](/en/features/account): Your workspace, your money, your people.

## Read the guide

- [Guide: Monthly Credits](/en/guide/billing/credits)

## More in Account & Billing

- [Lifetime Credits (Free)](/en/features/account/lifetime_credits_free): Pick the Free plan and your workspace gets 2,000 credits in one grant, no card required. Those credits never reset and never expire; you spend them at your own pace across chat, tools, and media generation until they run out. It is a one-time bucket, not a monthly allowance, so it is meant for trying the platform before you commit to a paid plan.
- [Buy Credits](/en/features/account/credit_packs): Add credits to your workspace balance any time, on any plan, without changing your subscription. Pick from three one-time packs, pay by card through Stripe, and the credits land in your balance as soon as the payment clears.
- [Upgrade & Downgrade](/en/features/account/plan_upgrade_downgrade): Move to a bigger plan the moment you need more credits or a higher employee cap, and the change takes effect immediately. Move to a smaller plan when you need less, and it takes effect at the end of your current billing period so you keep what you already paid for. Both happen from Settings, Subscription, no support ticket required.
- [Promo Codes](/en/features/account/promo_codes): Redeem a promotional code for a one-time, lifetime grant of bonus credits on top of your plan's monthly allowance. Enter a code at signup or any time afterward from Settings, Subscription, Get Free Credits. Each grant shows up in your Credit Grants history with its source, date, and amount, and one code can be redeemed once per workspace.
- [Referrals](/en/features/account/referral_program): Share your personal referral link or invite someone by email, and you both get 1,000 free credits the moment they sign up. Track every invite from a dedicated Earn Credits page, and keep earning until you hit the 10-referral cap.
- [Data Retention](/en/features/account/data_retention): Sistava deletes operational data on a fixed schedule instead of keeping it forever by default. A cleanup job runs every day and removes rows past their retention window: short-lived debug data within a week or two, working memory after 30 days of inactivity, and usage and activity history after two years. Chat messages, documents your employees write, and persistent notes are kept indefinitely unless you delete them yourself. There is no setting to change these windows; they apply the same way to every workspace.
- [Google Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_google): Sign in to Sistava with your Google account instead of creating a separate password. Choose Sign up with Google on the signup page and your workspace is ready after one approval, with your name and photo carried over automatically from Google. Because Google has already confirmed your email address, there is no verification email to chase before your AI employees can start working.
- [Microsoft Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_microsoft): Sign up or sign in with your Microsoft account instead of creating a password. Sistava reads your Microsoft account's name, email, and profile photo to set up your account, and your Profile page shows Microsoft as your connected sign-in method. Because Microsoft has already confirmed the address belongs to you, the account counts as verified from the start and your employees can begin working straight away. Google sign-in and an ordinary email and password are the other two ways in.
- [Workspace Roles](/en/features/account/tenant_roles): Every workspace you create has an Owner, Admin, and Collaborator role, each with a fixed set of permissions over billing, the collaborator roster, and resource access. Owners can grant a non-owner collaborator extra access, or take some away, without changing their overall role. A Roles page shows your own effective access and the full permission matrix so nobody has to guess what they can do.
- [User Profile Picture](/en/features/account/user_profile_avatar): Upload a photo for your account so your teammates and AI employees see a real picture of you instead of initials. It shows up in chat, comments, and the collaborator list across every workspace you belong to. If you signed up with Google or Microsoft, your picture is pulled in automatically the first time you sign in, and you can replace it any time.
- [Two-Factor Authentication](/en/features/account/two_factor_auth): Add a second sign-in step to your Sistava account using any TOTP authenticator app, like Google Authenticator or Authy. Once enabled, a code from your app is required in addition to your password, so a leaked or guessed password alone is not enough to get in. Turning it on immediately signs out every other active session, so a session created before you enabled it cannot be used to bypass it.
- [Feedback Board](/en/features/account/feedback_board): Submit bug reports, feature requests, improvements, and questions from inside the app, then vote on what other users have asked for. Every item lands on one Community Board visible to the whole platform, sorted by vote count, so the most-wanted ideas surface for the team automatically.

## Explore

- [Every feature](/en/features)
- [Hire an AI employee](/en/market)
- [Pricing](/en/pricing)