Understand AI credits

AI credits are shared workspace balance

AI credits pay for AI work that runs for a workspace. The spendable balance belongs to the workspace, not to the individual person who clicked the AI button. ALLO still records the actor for history and audit, but the debit comes from the shared workspace balance.

That is the part to remember when several people use AI Studio, Object Chat, or voice input in the same workspace. One member's AI request can reduce the balance everyone relies on. When the balance is too low, ALLO blocks credit-gated AI work before provider processing starts.

For buying credits, subscription credits, and Auto-reload controls, read Buy and manage AI credits.

Availability and permissions

AI access is narrower for guests and external collaborators, even when they can open or comment on shared work. That protects workspace cost and data boundaries.

What spends credits

AI credit usage depends on the action, input size, output type, selected model, provider work, and workspace configuration. Billing and credit history are the source of truth after the action runs.

Deleting a completed AI result does not return credits. Credits pay for AI work that already ran, not for whether the generated object stays on the canvas.

How credits are used

ALLO keeps spendable credits in different buckets. You do not choose the bucket manually. When AI work spends credits, ALLO uses limited-time credits before permanent purchased credits.

Workspace Billing shows the current balance, visible expiry dates, purchase options, and credit history. Raw provider details, internal ids, tokens, USD cost, and accounting metadata stay in admin or support diagnostics instead of normal customer rows.

Where admins manage credits

Workspace admins manage credits from Workspace Settings → Billing or from the credit purchase path shown when an AI action is blocked. Buy and manage AI credits covers checkout, Auto-reload, saved payment methods, and credit history.

Members can spend available credits only through AI features they are allowed to use. They cannot buy credits, change Auto-reload, or inspect billing-sensitive ledger details unless they also have admin access. If a member hits a zero-credit block, they should ask a workspace admin.

Free workspaces can buy one-time AI credit packs without starting a subscription. The purchase still belongs to the workspace, so it should be made by an admin in the workspace that needs the credits.

One-time credit packs

Credit packs are one-time purchases. They add purchased credits to the workspace balance and do not create a recurring subscription by themselves.

Use Pricing for the current public package list, and use the purchase screen in Billing as the checkout source of truth. The purchase screen shows the current pack, price, payment method, credit amount, and any active promotion before checkout. If a temporary promotion changes the grant amount, use the amount shown in Billing or the purchase modal.

Credit-pack checkout can save an eligible payment method for future Billing use. Saving the payment method does not turn the pack into a subscription; it only helps later purchases or Auto-reload.

AI credit packs and AI credit balances are non-refundable. For duplicate or unrecognized charges, read Refunds and duplicate charges.

Auto-reload

Auto-reload is an optional Billing setting. It automatically buys credits when the workspace balance drops below a threshold, as long as the saved payment method and monthly cap allow the charge.

Before enabling Auto-reload, review these settings:

Manual credit-pack purchases do not count toward the monthly Auto-reload cap. Turning Auto-reload off stops future automatic charges, but it does not undo credits or charges that already completed while the setting was enabled.

If the current balance is already below the threshold when an admin enables Auto-reload, ALLO completes an initial top-up before the setting stays on. If the saved payment method fails, Auto-reload cannot resolve the low-credit state until payment is fixed.

Auto-reload is not a pack repurchase. It charges only for the amount needed to refill to the target balance under the cap rules.

When credits run out

ALLO checks the workspace credit balance before provider work begins. A zero-credit block stops the AI action before expensive processing starts.

Voice input has the strictest preflight: a zero-credit block happens before the browser asks for microphone permission, before recording starts, before audio upload, and before transcription provider work.

AI credits are not storage or billing credits

AI credits are for AI provider work. Storage is for files and workspace data capacity. Billing credits are financial account credits or invoice adjustments. They are separate systems.

Buying storage will not unblock AI Studio. Buying AI credits will not fix file storage quota.

Common questions

Recover from credit problems

If you are an admin and AI is blocked, open Billing, review the balance, buy a credit pack, or configure Auto-reload if the workspace should avoid future zero-credit blocks.

If you are not an admin, send the workspace name and the AI action you tried to a workspace admin. Do not keep retrying the same request.

If a purchase succeeded but credits did not appear, wait briefly, refresh Billing, then contact support with the checkout time, workspace name, buyer email, pack name, charge amount, and screenshots of the credit balance.

If Auto-reload charged unexpectedly, review the Auto-reload threshold, target balance, monthly cap, saved payment method, and recent AI usage. Turning Auto-reload off stops future automatic charges.

If credits were spent on a wrong result, use When an AI result is not right before regenerating. Review the prompt, selected context, attachments, and output type so the next attempt has a better chance of being useful.