# Billing and credits

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](/glossary#credit), against your plan's allowance. Nothing is charged during the beta: credits count against your plan's allowance only.

## One unit

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](/policies/limits#prices-per-operation) page, and each operation's reference section shows its own.

## Allowances

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 allowance

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](/policies/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 mode

A [test key](/policies/test-mode) 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 limits

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](/policies/limits#plans) page.

## Checking what you have used

`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).

## Prices

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.

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Last updated October 18, 2026

Support: support@askkelly.ai · Security and disclosure: https://docs.askkelly.ai/security

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