Billing and credits
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Credits as the one unit, what each kind of work costs, each plan's allowance and what happens when you reach it.
Every call is paid for in credits, against your plan's allowance. Nothing is charged during the beta: credits count against your plan's allowance only.
One unitLink to this section
One credit is one cached engine read. A call costs the same number of credits in chat, the API, MCP and Kelly Wire, and a refused request costs nothing.
| Work | Credits |
|---|---|
| An answer on the fast model tier | 25 |
| An answer on the standard model tier | 100 |
| A read: a game, market, player, odds calculation or reference entry | 1 |
| A Kelly Wire topic held for an hour, or part of one | 2 |
GET /v1/status: your plan and the credits left | 0 |
An answer costs what its model tier costs, wherever you ask it. The price of every API operation is on the limits page, and each operation's reference section shows its own.
AllowancesLink to this section
Each plan includes an allowance of credits. Anonymous allowances are per address per UTC day; account allowances are per billing period.
| Plan | Allowance | Resets | Test-mode allowance | Past the allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymous | 200 credits | each UTC day | no test keys | 429 quota_exhausted |
| Free | 25,000 credits | each billing period | 1,000 credits | 429 quota_exhausted |
| Pro | 25,000 credits | each billing period | 2,000 credits | 429 quota_exhausted |
| Developer | 100,000 credits | each billing period | 20,000 credits | billed per 1,000 credits |
| Scale | 1,000,000 credits | each billing period | 100,000 credits | billed per 1,000 credits |
The numbers are proposals until traffic measures them.
At the allowanceLink to this section
On a plan without overage, a call past the allowance answers 429 with the problem code quota_exhausted until the allowance resets, and the Retry-After header says when. See retries.
On a plan with overage, calls past the allowance go through. The credits past the allowance are counted and billed per 1,000 credits once paid plans open; during the beta they are counted and not charged.
Test modeLink to this section
A test key starting kelly_test_ draws on its plan's test-mode allowance, never the live one, and reaches only the sandbox. Test keys have no overage: past the test-mode allowance they answer quota_exhausted on every plan.
Rate limitsLink to this section
Credits and rate limits are separate. Each plan also limits calls per window and Kelly Wire connections and topics; a call over the rate limit answers 429 with rate_limited and costs nothing. The numbers per plan are on the limits page.
Checking what you have usedLink to this section
GET /v1/status costs 0 credits and is never refused for quota: it returns your plan, your rate-limit window and your credits for the period. Every metered response also carries X-Credits-Used and X-Credits-Remaining.
A breakdown of your credits and calls by day and by operation, for this and past billing periods, is planned (P8, October 16, 2026).
PricesLink to this section
Paid plans open after the beta. Until then the docs show no prices, and no plan charges anything. Scale is arranged with Kelly directly: write to support@askkelly.ai.