How AI credits work

What uses credits

The rate card is fixed and the same for every account:

Agent replies cost credits on every channel — WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, email and Custom Inbox — and so do follow-ups, replies started from the API or by an operator, and agents running inside workflows.

As a reference, 1,000 credits are about 33 plain replies a day for a month.

What is free

• Test Chat.
• Processing your knowledge base.
• Analyzing the images, audio and documents your customers send.
• Template and campaign sends. WhatsApp's own messaging fees are billed by Meta directly and are not part of credits.

Only an agent reply or a phone call uses credits.

Your balance

Your balance is always in view: the counter in the app header shows how many credits you have left, turning amber when it runs low and red at zero. Open it, or go to Settings → Credits, for the full picture:

• Balance — your included and purchased credits, and when each expires.
• Buy credits — the recharge packs.
• Usage this cycle — what your agents used this billing cycle, replies and calls.
• What uses credits — the rate card above.
• Purchases and Activity — every pack you bought and every movement of your balance.

Monthly credits and recharge packs

• Included credits renew with each monthly payment: your balance resets to your plan's credits, and unused ones don't roll over.
• Recharge packs are a one-time payment through MercadoPago (card, OXXO, SPEI or MercadoPago balance):

• Purchased credits are valid for 12 months from your latest purchase.
• Included credits are used first, then purchased ones.
• Credits are added as soon as MercadoPago confirms the payment; OXXO and SPEI payments arrive when the payment clears.

When your balance is low or runs out

You get a notice in the app and by email when your balance drops to 20% of your monthly credits, and again at zero.

At zero your agents pause:

• A reply already in progress finishes. New messages keep arriving and stay in your inbox for your team to answer.
• A red banner appears in the app, and the conversation shows a thin line — "Out of credits — your agent stopped replying here" — where the agent stopped.
• A phone call needs enough credits for its first minute; otherwise a new call is refused upfront and nothing is charged.

To resume, buy a recharge pack or wait for your next monthly payment. Once credits are back, your agent answers the next message that arrives; messages that came in while it was paused are not answered automatically.

Existing customers: one week of unlimited text AI

If your account already existed when credits started, you get seven days in which your text agents keep replying without using any credits. Your usage is measured, but nothing is deducted. Phone calls keep using your usual voice minutes during that week. A welcome window and a strip at the top of the app show the day it ends, and you can reopen the window from the strip.

When the week ends, your plan's monthly credits start. If you are on the free trial, you continue with your trial credits and get your plan's monthly credits with your first payment.

Accounts created after credits started use credits from their first day, with the 300-credit free trial.

For developers: API, MCP and Custom Inbox

Credits also apply to anything that runs your agent or places a call through the API, and the balance can be read programmatically:

• Balance: GET /v1/account/overview (the credits block) and the MCP tool get_account_overview return the balance, the renewal and the rate card, plus agents[].credits_per_reply. See Public API and MCP.
• Engage: POST /v1/agents/{agent_id}/engage costs the same as a reply and returns 402 credits_exhausted when the account has no credits left.
• Outbound calls: POST /v1/calls/initiate costs 10 credits per minute and returns 402 quota_exhausted with details.reason: "credits" when the first minute can't be paid.
• Custom Inbox: inbound messages keep arriving; instead of a reply, your webhook receives one agent.paused event per conversation. See Custom Inbox.
• Sending messages and templates, reading conversations, account actions, voice numbers and docs search never use credits.

An external AI client can find this page with the docs search: see Search Kronos AI docs from your AI.

Frequently asked questions

See also: Plans & Billing for the price of your plan and how payments work.