> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.intangible.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.intangible.ai/learn-more/concepts/credits-and-tokens.md).

# Credits and tokens

How Intangible bills generation work – what costs credits, where you see your balance, and how to think about cost per shot before you click Generate.

Credits are the unit Intangible bills generation work in. Every image render, video render, Generate 3D Asset call, and image edit costs a deterministic number of credits. Messages to the agents use credits too, a set amount per message that depends on the chat model. GPT-6 Luna messages are free; the renders the agents make are not. The credits button at the top right shows your remaining balance.

## Why it exists

Diffusion models cost real money to run – a single video render at 2K can cost a few dollars on the model provider's API. Hidden costs in a creative tool are how budgets blow up mid-project. Credits make the cost visible at the workspace level: your balance updates as each charge lands.

Your balance is a live read of your tier's monthly allotment plus any credit packs you've bought, minus what you've spent. It refreshes per-action.

## What it looks like in the product

The credits button sits at the top right of Home and of the project header, between help and notifications. It is the credits icon, a hexagon with a spark, with no number beside it. Hover over it, or click it, and a card opens under it with your balance in credits and "Click to view usage". Click the card to open **My usage**: the breakdown of where your credits went, and the balance panels you buy more credits from. From the keyboard, Enter on the button goes straight to Usage.

When the balance drops below 500 credits, the card reads "Running low · Click to view usage". The button no longer pulses when the balance is low.

![The credits button at the top right of Home, a hexagon with a spark between help and notifications, with its card open under it: the balance in credits, blurred in this capture, above Click to view usage](https://1179478100-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FSWrjIqlgVAblx6vHGJiM%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-67c7b4edb485f0d959319ece99206ee83e70b8a8%2Fcredits-hover-card-01.png?alt=media)

Inside the visualizer panel, the image resolution control sits near the bottom of the Visualize panel, just above the Generate button, offering 1K, 2K and, on most models, 4K. There's no live cost preview on the Generate button itself; hover over the credits button at the top right for your remaining balance.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you trigger a paywalled action (or run out of credits), the paywall appears when you click Generate, not before. Hover does nothing; the click is the commitment.
{% endhint %}

## How the visualizer thinks about cost

```mermaid
flowchart LR
    A[Your plan tier] -->|monthly allotment| C[Credit pool]
    B[Credit pack purchase] -->|adds to| C
    C -->|charged per action| D[Image render]
    C -->|charged per action| E[Video render]
    C -->|charged per action| F[the agents]
    C -->|charged per action| G[Generate 3D Asset]
    C -->|charged per action| H[Image edit]
```

Some actions are explicitly free:

* Switching modes
* Adding objects from the asset library
* Moving, rotating, scaling
* Renaming
* Adjusting environment settings (sun, fog, terrain)
* Reading the auto-prompt

[Direct Render](/visualize/direct-render.md), rendering a shot's 3D scene as video with no AI model in between, is not free. It runs no generation model, so it costs a small flat fee whatever the shot's length. Anything that touches a generation API or a render server costs credits. Anything purely local does not.

## How much does each action cost?

Specific credit costs change as model providers adjust pricing on their end. The current matrix lives at [intangible.ai/pricing](https://www.intangible.ai/pricing). Open **Usage** from the profile menu for your own spend. As ballpark for planning:

| Action                                                    | Approximate credit cost                           | Counts against                |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| Switching modes, adding library assets, environment edits | Free                                              | –                             |
| Messages to the agents                                    | Uses credits                                      | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| 1K image render                                           | Cheap (tens per credit pack)                      | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| 2K image render                                           | More than 1K; how much more depends on the model  | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| 4K image render                                           | Meaningfully more than 1K, wherever it is offered | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| Image edit (Edit image)                                   | Lower than a fresh render                         | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| Generate 3D Asset                                         | Higher than image, lower than video               | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| Standard-duration video render                            | Substantially more than image                     | Monthly first, then Purchased |
| Video at 2K with audio                                    | The single most expensive action in the product   | Monthly first, then Purchased |

{% hint style="warning" %}
Video at 2K with audio is the most expensive single action in the product. Run 1K previews to confirm composition, then commit to 2K for the final.
{% endhint %}

## When a job fails

A job that fails is refunded automatically, and your balance refreshes. A result that completes but misses the mark is charged. Two failures that sit after the model has already run are refunded too:

* **A scene video whose render never reaches the video model.** The scene renders, then the hand-off to the video model fails. The job is failed and refunded. You don't get the raw, unstyled render in its place.
* **A finished video or image that never lands in the project.** The model finished, but the browser couldn't save the output. The job is failed, the credits come back, and the balance refreshes.

## Video-to-video is billed on the output

A video-to-video job is billed for the clip the model makes, not only for the length of your source. Most models make a clip as long as the source. The Seedance motion-guide models make at least 4 seconds, so a shorter source from the agents is padded to 4 seconds and billed as 4 seconds. In the Visualize panel and in Markup, a source shorter than 4 seconds is refused on those models before anything is charged, so you can pick another model. See [Models](/visualize/ai-models.md).

## When to reach for it

Anytime you're a few weeks into a project and want to see what's been driving spend, open **Usage** from the profile menu and look at the breakdown. Find the action category that's eating the budget. Common answers: 2K video iterations, asking the agents for small changes you could make faster by hand.

For the full picture across a team, open **Usage** from the profile menu. It attributes spend by category, by user, by project, and down to individual charges over a 7, 30, or 90 day window. See [Reading the Usage page](/teams-and-billing/plans-and-billing.md#reading-the-usage-page).

## When you run out

When your balance runs out, clicking Generate opens an out-of-credits message instead of rendering. Three options:

* **Buy a credit pack** (paid plans only): covered in [Plans and billing](/teams-and-billing/plans-and-billing.md). A top-up that doesn't change your tier. On Free, subscribe first.
* **Upgrade your tier**: bumps your monthly allotment and unlocks tier-gated capability. See [Plans and billing](/teams-and-billing/plans-and-billing.md) and [intangible.ai/pricing](https://www.intangible.ai/pricing) for what each tier includes.
* **Wait for the cycle to roll over**: free option, slow option.

## Related

* [Plans and billing](/teams-and-billing/plans-and-billing.md)
* [Resolution and cost](/visualize/resolution-and-cost.md)
* [Generate image](/visualize/generate-image.md)
* [Generate video](/visualize/generate-video.md)


---

# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.

## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the following URL with the `ask` and `goal` query parameters:

```
GET https://help.intangible.ai/learn-more/concepts/credits-and-tokens.md?ask=<question>&goal=<user_goal>
```

`ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
`goal` is what the user is ultimately trying to achieve, the reason they need the answer. Sharing it helps GitBook give you a better, more relevant answer. A goal is most helpful when it describes the outcome the user wants rather than restating the question. For example, with `ask=how do I create an API token`, a goal like `automate deployments from our CI pipeline` lets GitBook tailor the answer to that use case.

The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.