Credit, Quota and Token Policy
This policy explains what HowAICite sells, what is counted, when a balance changes and which technical limits can still apply. It forms part of the Terms for purchases and use of automated provider observations.
Three different units
Included quota is the number of provider observations included with a workspace plan each UTC calendar month. It resets at 00:00 UTC on the first day of the next month and unused included quota does not roll over.
Purchased observation credits are prepaid, one-time top-ups held in the workspace credit wallet. They are separate from a subscription, do not renew automatically and do not increase plan seats, websites, saved questions or other entitlements.
Provider tokens are technical input and output units reported by an AI provider. Token counts vary with question length, context, model, tools and answer length. They may be shown for transparency and diagnostics, but HowAICite does not currently debit the retail wallet by token count.
What one credit buys
One observation credit pays for one successfully completed automated provider observation: one saved question sent to one supported AI surface, with a valid completed answer recorded as evidence. A longer answer or a higher provider token count does not consume more than one credit under the current retail packs.
Order of use and reservations
HowAICite uses available included monthly quota first, then purchased credits. When an observation is queued or running, one unit is reserved so parallel jobs cannot overspend the workspace balance. A successful completed observation settles that reservation. A failed, canceled, rejected or incomplete observation releases it and consumes neither included quota nor a purchased credit.
A credit that was valid when an observation was queued remains valid for that already-reserved observation even if the credit reaches its expiry date before the provider completes the response.
Activation, balance and expiry
Purchased credits are added only after Dodo Payments confirms a successful payment through a signed webhook. A checkout redirect by itself does not add credits. Each purchased lot expires 12 months after its purchase timestamp. The wallet consumes the lot expiring soonest first. Expired, unused credits have no cash value and are not restored by a later subscription purchase.
The Billing page shows included quota separately from the purchased-credit balance and the next credit expiry. Purchases, debits and refund reversals are recorded in an append-only workspace ledger. Payment records remain available in Billing.
No surprise reload or overage
HowAICite does not automatically reload retail credits, convert a subscription into usage billing or charge overage when a balance reaches zero. A workspace owner must expressly approve each one-time credit purchase. When both included quota and available credits are exhausted or reserved, new automated observations pause; saved evidence and manual tools remain available.
Technical and fair-use limits
A positive balance does not remove security, concurrency, rate, anti-abuse or provider-availability limits. HowAICite may queue work, slow excessive bursts, block unlawful or abusive requests, or pause a provider that is unavailable. These safeguards do not by themselves consume credits. Plan limits do not guarantee that every provider, model, tool or market remains available.
Refunds, disputes and reversals
Unused retail credits are generally non-refundable except for duplicate charges, billing errors, unauthorized payments, material failure to deliver the purchased balance, or mandatory legal rights. If a full refund succeeds, the unused balance from that purchase is revoked. For an approved partial refund, a proportional number of unused credits may be revoked. Credits already consumed by completed observations are not returned to the wallet merely because a payment is later disputed or refunded. See the Refund Policy for the review process.
Transfers and changes
Credits belong to the purchasing workspace, cannot be sold or transferred outside that workspace and cannot be redeemed for cash. If HowAICite changes the counting unit, expiry rule or order of use, the new rule will be disclosed before it applies to a new purchase. Mandatory rights and any express terms shown at checkout continue to apply.