kredit

in English: AI credits / usage credits

basicwidespread

A credit is an internal accounting unit for AI services: a pre-purchased or subscription-based quota from which every request, image, or agent task deducts a certain amount.

In plain terms

A credit is like the balance on a prepaid phone card or a token at an amusement park. You do not pay directly in forints for each use, but consume from a budget, and the provider decides how many units each operation costs.

This is necessary because AI usage costs the provider unevenly. Answering a short question costs a fraction, while generating a video or running an agent working independently for hours costs many times more. Credits turn this difference into a single, easily trackable number.

It differs from an unlimited monthly fee, where for a fixed sum you can in principle use the service as much as you like. In a credit-based system, the charge follows your actual consumption: if you use it heavily or with a powerful model, you run out sooner and must wait for the next billing period or buy an extra allowance.

How it works

You receive credits: your subscription includes a monthly quota, you buy a separate package, or you get a free trial quota upon registration.
The provider prices operations: an image, for example, costs a few credits, while a longer video or using a more powerful model is a multiple of this.
In the background, the system measures actual computational work (such as the number of processed tokens or machine time) and converts this into credits.
Your balance decreases after every use, which you can usually track via a counter or in your account settings.
If the quota runs out, the service stops, switches to a slower or weaker model, or offers to sell you more. In many places, unused credits expire at the end of the month.

An everyday example

In an image-generating application, your monthly subscription includes 1,000 credits; one image costs 5 credits, and a short video costs 100. Mid-month, a message appears stating that your quota is exhausted: you either wait until the next billing period or purchase a top-up package.

Who is affected

everyoneMost AI applications, both free and paid tiers, work with some kind of credit or usage limit, so this determines how much you can actually use.

entrepreneur, executiveDue to credit-based pricing, AI costs are not a fixed monthly fee but grow with usage, requiring planning and monitoring.

developerCoding agents' long, independent tasks quickly consume the limit, so model selection and task formulation are directly a matter of cost. → Code

marketerMost image, video, and audio generation tools are credit-based, so failed attempts must be included in the campaign budget. → Marketing

A common misconception

MythOne credit is worth the same everywhere, so packages can be compared based on the number of credits.

In realityA credit is not a standard unit of measurement: each provider defines what it is worth and can change this at any time. It is worth comparing how many images, minutes, or completed tasks you get for the same amount of money.

Limits and risks

Unused credits expire at the end of the month or after a set period with many providers, so check the terms before purchasing.
Consumption is hard to predict: for the same task, an agent may use a small share of its allowance one time and many times that allowance another.
You also pay for bad or unusable results; the credit for an unsuccessful attempt is usually not refunded.
Automatic top-up is convenient, but without a spending cap it can result in a large bill unnoticed.

Similar, but not the same

token – A token is a text fragment processed by the model, i.e., a technical unit of measurement. A credit is the business accounting unit built on this, priced freely by the provider.
usage limit – Usage limits define how much you can use the service within a given period, such as hourly or daily, and cannot be purchased. Credits, by contrast, are purchasable and spendable balances.
hitel (banki kredit) – AI credit is not a loan and does not need to be repaid: it is a usage balance received or paid in advance.

Related concepts

Broader

usage-based pricing, subscription, AI cost

Narrower

ingyenes kredit, API-kredit, top-up credit

On the edge

token, usage limit, API, computing capacity, agent

A brief history

The prepaid usage balance, originally from the world of prepaid mobile phones and cloud services, has moved into AI products. It first became widespread with image and video generation tools and API services for developers, and then became common with coding agents, because the cost of each task can vary greatly in these cases.

Where things stand

Credits are a common billing method for image, video, and audio generation tools, as well as coding agents, often combined with a fixed monthly fee. Rules vary by provider; there is no uniform standard.

Status: 2026 November

In the news

Appears in 3 Agent Age stories; the curve shows weekly occurrence in the news magazine.

AI coding tools cost developers from $150 to over $3,000 a monthOct 22, 2026 · Code
GitHub Copilot adds cost and quality controls, and Code Review gains agent capabilitiesSep 21, 2026 · Code
Copilot team AI credits cut by up to 44% at an unchanged priceSep 7, 2026 · Code

Also known as

kredit · AI-kredit · kreditkeret · usage credit · AI credits · usage credits · prepaid credits · compute credits

Sources

Wikipedia: Software as a service

This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.