Credit benefits let you bundle prepaid usage with pricing that is not itself a prepaid credit purchase. This is useful when you want a plan or fee to include an allowance, such as:
The examples below focus on how these benefits behave from the customer’s point of view.
Use this pattern when you sell a one-time bundle of credits without a recurring subscription.
Example:
$50010,000 API CreditsCustomer experience:
10,000 credit allocationThis is useful when customers want to buy credits in bulk upfront, top up on demand, or purchase a starter pack to try your product.
Use this pattern when a recurring subscription should include a fresh allowance each billing period.
Example:
$99/month1,000 API Credits per monthCustomer experience:
1,000 credit allocationThis is the most common model for subscription plans with included usage.
Use this pattern when you sell seats, but want the included credits to be shared across the whole customer account.
Example:
$40 per seat per month500 Messages per seatorganizationIf the customer has 10 seats:
10 seats5,000 shared message creditsThis works well when the customer cares about the total account allowance more than the per-user split.
Use this pattern when each seat should receive its own allowance rather than sharing one pool.
Example:
$40 per seat per month500 Messages per seatseatCustomer experience:
This works well when usage limits should map directly to licensed users.
You can include more than one credit benefit on the same product when the customer receives different usage allowances together.
Example:
$499/month10,000 API Credits2,000 Workflow CreditsCustomer experience:
This is useful when your product has more than one metered resource and customers need separate visibility for each one.
Credit benefits can be allocated on different cadences inside a billing term.
Example:
$12,000/year120,000 API CreditsupfrontCustomer experience:
120,000 credits are granted at the start of the annual termExample:
$12,000/year120,000 API CreditsmonthlyCustomer experience:
10,000 credits becoming available each month during the annual termThis is useful when you want annual contract pricing but do not want the full annual allowance usable on day one.
Credit benefits can also become available at different times.
Use this when credits should be usable as soon as the order or billing period starts.
Use this when credits should remain pending until the related invoice is paid.
This is useful when you want credit access to follow payment collection more strictly.
By default, unused credits expire at the end of each allocation period. Rollover lets you carry a portion of unused credits into the next period so customers are not penalized for uneven usage.
The rollover cap controls how many unused credits can carry forward. If credits remaining at the end of a period exceed the cap, the excess expires.
Example:
$99/month1,000 API Credits per month500If the customer uses 700 credits in a billing period:
300300 (under the cap)0If the customer uses 200 credits:
800500 (capped)300Rolled-over credits do not last forever. By default they expire after one allocation period. You can set a custom expiry window using a duration and unit.
Example with default expiry:
$99/month1,000 API Credits per month500Month 1: customer uses 800 of 1,000 credits. 200 roll over into month 2. In month 2, the customer has 1,200 available (1,000 new plus 200 rolled over). Any of the 200 rolled-over credits still unused at the end of month 2 expire.
Example with custom expiry:
3 monthsRolled-over credits remain available for three months after the period in which they were earned. This gives customers a longer buffer to use surplus credits.
This example shows how the cap and expiry interact across several billing periods.
Setup:
100 API Credits per month50In period 2, 70 credits remain but only 50 roll over because of the cap. The other 20 expire. The same cap applies in period 3.
When a customer has credits from multiple sources, Paid consumes them in this order:
This order ensures that credits closest to expiring are used before newer allocations.