Billing and credits
CoChat charges by what you actually use. Every message, automation run and API call costs a small amount of model usage, and there are two pots it can come from.
The two pots
Section titled “The two pots”Daily allowance. Every plan includes a daily amount of model usage (see Plans and limits). It resets at midnight UTC and doesn’t roll over. This is always spent first.
Credit balance. A prepaid balance that’s used automatically once the day’s allowance is gone. It never expires. New accounts start with a small balance so you can try premium models straight away.
While a reply is being generated, a small amount (25¢) is temporarily reserved from your balance and settled when the reply finishes, so the figure can briefly read a little lower than you expect.
The Billing page
Section titled “The Billing page”Open the user menu and choose Billing. There are three tabs.
Billing
Section titled “Billing”- Current plan — your plan, when it renews, and Manage billing (opens Stripe for card, invoices and cancellation).
- Plan cards — compare plans and upgrade or change.
- Daily usage — how much of today’s allowance you’ve used, a countdown to the reset, an estimate of messages left, and a line for each daily meter (messages, active automations, files, citation verifications, claim checks).
- Overage balance — your credit balance, with any referral credit and its expiry called out separately.
- Add funds and Automatic Top-Up — below.
Reports
Section titled “Reports”Pick Last 7 / 30 / 90 days to see today’s usage by model, usage by type (chat, automation, API) and usage by model as bar charts.
Activity
Section titled “Activity”Every turn and automation run with its type, model, date and a link to open the chat or run. Fifty rows at a time; click Load more for older ones.
Adding funds
Section titled “Adding funds”- On the Billing tab, click Add funds.
- Choose an amount.
- Click Pay and complete the purchase in Stripe.
Funds appear in your balance as soon as you’re back. They never expire.
Automatic top-up
Section titled “Automatic top-up”Turn on Automatic Top-Up and CoChat reloads your balance whenever it falls below $5, using the amount you pick from the Top-up amount list. If you don’t have a card saved yet, turning it on takes you through one purchase first to verify the card.
If a payment is declined, we email you and try once more the next day. A second failure (or a card that can’t be retried, such as an expired card) turns automatic top-up off until you update your card and re-enable it; the Billing page shows what happened and when. You can turn it off yourself at any time.
Warnings as you approach the limit
Section titled “Warnings as you approach the limit”You’ll see a notice above the composer at 80%, 90% and 100% of your daily allowance. If you have credit in your balance, the 100% notice is just a quiet line telling you you’re now drawing on it and how much is left.
Running out mid-chat
Section titled “Running out mid-chat”If your allowance and balance both hit zero:
- A reply that’s already streaming is allowed to finish.
- New messages are paused for an hour. The composer shows why, with a button to switch to a free model — that lifts the pause immediately. Adding funds or upgrading also lifts it.
- In a shared chat, only the person who ran out is paused; others can keep going.
Receipts and invoices
Section titled “Receipts and invoices”Click Manage billing on the Billing tab. Stripe’s portal has every invoice and receipt, and lets you change your card or cancel.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- Automation runs, API calls and sub-agent work all draw from the same allowance and balance as chat.
- Usage is settled per turn, so the Activity tab is the place to see what a specific chat cost.
- Referral credit is separate from purchased credit and expires 90 days after it arrives.