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CloudThinker meters agent work in credits. Every chat message, Review, Resolve, Optimize, or Cyber run, and automation consumes credits from your organization’s balance. This page explains where those credits come from, what makes a run cost more, and how to read the Usage page so you know who and what is spending them.

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Credit types

Your organization can hold up to three kinds of credits, plus optional metered overage. Premium credits are one pool for the whole organization. Every workspace draws from it, so a single busy workspace can use most of it. To stop that, set credit limits per workspace.
On an older annual subscription, premium credits refresh monthly on your billing anniversary day. You do not receive the full year’s credits at once.
Available features depend on your plan; see Pricing.

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Which credits a run uses

CloudThinker spends credits in this order and moves to the next pool only when the current one is empty or can’t pay for the run:
1

Daily credits

Used first, but only for chat on the Light model.
2

Bonus credits

Used next, for any model and any feature.
3

Premium credits

Your plan’s monthly pool, for any model and any feature.
4

Pay-As-You-Go

Charged at $0.10 per credit, only if Pay-As-You-Go is turned on.
Example: a Team member asks a quick question in chat on Light. That run draws from daily credits. The same member then starts a Review run on Pro. Daily credits can’t pay for it, so it draws from bonus credits if you have any, then premium credits.

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What makes a run cost more

A run’s charge comes from the tokens the model reads and writes during it, multiplied by its model tier. There’s no fixed price per run, so the same kind of run can cost very different amounts. What pushes a run up:
  • Tool calls and their output. Each command, query, or file an agent reads adds tokens. An investigation across many resources costs more than a one-line answer.
  • Conversation length. A long thread carries more context into each new message, so a message late in a long thread usually costs more than the same question in a fresh one.
  • Model tier. The same task costs more than five times as much on Ultra as on Light.
A turn that runs on your own BYOK key is charged only a reduced share of this, because your provider bills the tokens. Those credits land in the same views below. Usage has no separate view for spend on your key. To see what your runs actually cost, open Admin Settings → Usage and group by feature (see Read the Usage page). To switch tier in chat, click the tier button in the bottom row of the message box (it shows the current tier, such as Pro) and pick Light, Pro, or Ultra. Each row shows its multiplier. Your choice is saved in this browser only, so it doesn’t follow you to another device, and it applies to the runs you start next.
Chat starts on Pro, and Pro never uses daily credits. On Team and above, ordinary chat therefore draws bonus or premium credits until you switch to Light.
Rules that decide which tier a run can use:
  • Free plan runs Light only. Pro and Ultra show as locked until you upgrade.
  • Pro and Ultra never use daily credits, even in chat. They always draw bonus, premium, or Pay-As-You-Go credits.
  • Automations never run on Light. The automation tier picker offers Pro and Ultra only. An older automation saved on Light runs as Pro.
  • Custom agents carry their own tier, set in the Model Tier field when you create the agent.
To stretch your premium credits, keep routine questions on Light and save Ultra for investigations where Pro gave a weak answer.

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Read the Usage page

Admin Settings → Usage shows how much credit your organization has left and where the rest went. The organization Owner and Admins can open it. Only the Owner sees Billing.
1

Open Usage

Go to Admin Settings → Usage.
2

Check your balances

The cards at the top show what’s left in Premium credits, Daily credits, and Bonus credits.
3

Pick a time range

In the Credit Usage chart, choose Last 7 days, Last 30 days, or Last 90 days, or set your own dates. You can group the chart Daily, Weekly, or Monthly, and Yearly, which is only useful with a custom range.
4

Find who and what spent it

Under Usage Breakdown, switch between By Feature, By User, and By Workspace. All three tabs cover the same time range as the chart.
How to use each view: Use the All features filter on the chart to narrow the trend to a single feature.

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Alerts you get without checking

You don’t have to watch the Usage page. CloudThinker sends these on its own: Pay-As-You-Go and workspace limit alerts go to the organization Owner only, in-app and by email. Admins should check this page instead.

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Pay-As-You-Go

Pay-As-You-Go covers usage beyond your available daily, bonus, and premium credits. On Team and Scale, this usage costs $0.10 per credit, up to the monthly spending cap you set.
Pay-As-You-Go isn’t available on Free and stays off during a Team trial. Upgrade to Team or above to turn it on.
Check the allowed range shown on your Pay-As-You-Go card before setting a cap. Enterprise usage rates are set in your private offer.
1

Open Pay-As-You-Go

Go to Admin Settings → Usage. The Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) card sits at the top of the page. Only the Owner sees it.
2

Turn it on

Switch the toggle on. “Pay-As-You-Go enabled successfully” appears, and the change takes effect right away.
3

Set the monthly cap

Click Set cap (or Edit cap), enter an amount in the allowed range, and click Save.Expected result: the Usage this cycle row shows your spend against the cap, for example “$12.40 of $1000 cap”. Once the cap is reached, the row reads Cap reached and new runs that need paid credits are blocked until the next billing cycle.
The cap resets each billing cycle. Lowering it mid-cycle doesn’t refund usage you’ve already incurred.

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Troubleshooting

Daily credits only pay for chat on the Light model. A Pro or Ultra run, or any Review, Resolve, Optimize, Cyber, or automation run, draws bonus, premium, or Pay-As-You-Go credits instead.
Open Admin Settings → Usage and check By Workspace and By User for the biggest spender. Move routine work to Light, then cap heavy workspaces with credit limits or turn on Pay-As-You-Go.
You’ve likely hit your monthly cap. The Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) card on Admin Settings → Usage reads Cap reached. Pay-As-You-Go stays stopped until the next billing cycle unless the Owner raises the cap there.
Your organization has no credits left that can pay for the run. Plan credits used up means daily credits remain, so click Switch to Light to keep chatting. Out of Credits means nothing is left. The Owner can click Enable Pay-As-You-Go, upgrade the plan, or contact support. Otherwise, wait for the next reset.
The Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) card on Admin Settings → Usage shows only to the organization Owner on a paid plan. During a Team trial, it says Pay-As-You-Go is available after the trial ends.

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Next steps

Credit limits

Cap how many credits each workspace can spend per month

Pricing

Compare plans and their premium credit allocations