AI and usage credits
Credits pay for work you run in maxclicks. They are separate from your subscription, and each workspace has its own balance. One credit equals one unit of your billing currency: $1, €1 or £1. Small tasks use fractions of a credit.
You buy credits upfront. Work then spends that balance; it is not billed to your card a second time. See How billing works for subscription prices and email allowances.
What uses credits
| Activity | What you pay for |
|---|---|
| maxinja | Agent conversations, generation and other billable work performed for your request. |
| Adaptyle | Generated previews, regenerations and personalized content prepared for recipients. |
| Workflows | Each executed step, plus any AI work and personalized email it runs. A step can have a fee even without AI. |
| Email overage | Premium delivery above the included monthly email allowance. |
| Other AI work | Tasks such as generating an audience condition or processing brand content. |
AI previews use credits. Reading a saved preview does not generate it again. A new generation can incur new usage.
Ordinary copy and Liquid do not use Adaptyle generation credits. Campaign dispatch, workflow steps and email overage can still apply.
Included and purchased credits
- First domain verification: 5 credits once. Added to the workspace balance when your first sending domain verifies. It is not a monthly refill.
- First Premium upgrade: 5 credits once. A welcome gift for the workspace. A later resubscription does not repeat it.
- Each paid maxinja seat: $15 in AI credit a month. Included for AI work within that seat. Unused seat credit is replaced at the monthly reset. A seat is for assistant access, not ordinary editing or collaboration.
- Purchased credits: added after payment. Available on Free and Premium. They go into the workspace balance and carry forward across monthly resets and if you cancel Premium.
After a maxinja seat uses its monthly allowance, further billable work draws from workspace credits.
Campaigns and background workflows use the workspace balance. Each paid maxinja seat has its own included $15 in AI credit for use within that seat. For example, two paid seats each have their own $15 allowance; their unused credit is not an automated campaign budget.
Eligible new workspaces can receive funded maxinja setup assistance before domain verification. That does not make ordinary AI previews or generation free.
How charges are calculated
AI cost varies with the model, the amount of customer context, the requested output and any additional generation or review work. There is no fixed price per personalized email.
Charges use the provider-reported cost, or a token-cost estimate when it is unavailable. Standard generation, Adaptyle and workflow AI use a 1.6× multiplier; supporting operations such as email inspections and Liquid suggestions use 1.2×. The resulting amount is deducted in credits. Some operations also have a small fixed fee:
| Operation | Fixed fee in credits |
|---|---|
| maxinja exchange | 0.002 |
| Email template generation | 0.015 |
| Broadcast dispatch | 0.03 |
| Workflow step execution | 0.00005 |
These are operation fees, not a fee for every email recipient. AI usage is additional. Premium email overage is 0.12 credits per 1,000 emails; that rate already includes the 1.2× sending-cost multiplier.
For example, in a USD workspace, $1 of billable AI provider work becomes 1.60 credits, before applicable operation fees. This shows the rate calculation, not a forecast for a campaign. An Adaptyle campaign's total also depends on how many recipients need generated content.
Workflow billing explains which steps use AI and how execution is charged.
Estimate a campaign
Before scheduling, open the email composer's Estimate. Review:
- Audience and model: the number of recipient messages and the selected model affect the work.
- Generation and review: previews, corrections, pilot reviews and continuing reviews can add usage. Do not assume one model call per recipient.
- Delivery and campaign charges: included email delivery is separate from AI writing and dispatch costs.
An unknown estimate is not a zero cost. A successful preview does not pay for later recipient generation. Stopping or cancelling a campaign does not undo usage already incurred.
Use representative customer profiles, keep exact facts and fixed wording outside Adaptyle regions, and check the workspace balance before starting a large campaign.
Add credits
An admin can buy credits on Free or Premium:
- Open Settings → Billing → Overview.
- In Credits Balance, select Add Credits.
- Enter a whole amount from 10 to 10,000 credits and confirm payment. Add a card or complete your bank's verification if prompted.
The purchase charges your card and adds credits to the workspace balance. It does not change your plan or increase Free's 100-email cap.
Automatic reload
In Credits Balance, choose Enable Auto Reload. Set a trigger balance and the amount to add. Both plans support it with admin access and a saved payment method.
For example, set 40 credits to add and a 20-credit trigger. When the balance is at or below 20 at a check, maxclicks charges for 40 credits. If the balance was 15, it becomes 55. The amount is added to the balance; it is not a target ending balance.
Reload checks run about every 15 minutes. They can charge a multiple of the reload amount when needed to clear the trigger. Auto reload therefore helps maintain funding, but it is not an instant refill or a spending cap.
The minimum reload amount is 40 credits. The minimum trigger is the smallest 5% step of that amount worth at least 20 credits; the maximum is half the reload amount. A 40-credit reload uses a 20-credit trigger. A 1,000-credit reload has a minimum trigger of 50 credits. Use the values accepted by the controls.
Monitor your usage
Open Billing & Usage → Usage to filter spending by date, category and member. Admins on either plan can access it. Automated work can appear under System.
Use Overview for the current balance, payment methods and invoices. Credit spending and credit purchases are different: the usage report explains the work, while an invoice records the purchase. Manage your billing shows the controls.
When credits run out
New AI operations may be refused. A broadcast or workflow waiting for funding can continue after credits become available. Check its reason before starting replacement work, which could duplicate the original action.
A failed operation is different. Adding credits does not fix invalid content, an unusable sender, a suppressed recipient or an exhausted email allowance. Free's email allowance resets monthly; buying credits does not bypass it.
Premium has a limited negative-credit buffer, so zero is not a stop button. Use Stop for a campaign or Pause for a workflow when you intend to stop future work.
For API integrations, inspect the error as well as the balance. insufficient_credits and email_limit_reached are different 402 errors. See the error reference.