Credits are the unit of AI usage in Bellwether. Every plan includes a monthly allowance; you can buy more if you run out. This article covers what costs what, how to monitor usage, and what happens when you hit zero.
Your monthly allowance
| Plan | Credits / month |
|---|---|
| Starter | 5,000 |
| Pro | 20,000 |
| Studio | 75,000 |
The allowance resets on your billing date. Unused credits do not roll over.
You can see your current balance anytime at Settings → Usage.
What each feature costs
Approximate costs per action. These are tuned periodically; see the Usage page for live numbers.
| Feature | Rough cost |
|---|---|
| Spell check (full manuscript) | 50–150 |
| Inline suggestion (single) | 1–3 |
| Line editing a chapter | 80–200 |
| Proofreading a chapter | 60–150 |
| Proofreading full manuscript | 800–2,000 |
| Developmental edit pass | 500–1,500 |
| Blurb generation | 30–80 |
| Description rewrite for retailer | 40–100 |
| Cover: three-candidate generation | 400–600 |
| Cover: regenerate imagery | 100–200 |
| Cover: generate variations (5) | 200–400 |
| AI assistant: short question | 5–20 |
| AI assistant: chapter-scope edit | 50–150 |
AI assistant: @book query | 200–800 |
Ranges depend on chapter length, image complexity, and how much context the assistant reads.
Where spending shows up
The Usage page has three views:
- Current session. Credits used since you opened Bellwether today.
- This month. Running total for the current billing period, broken down by feature.
- Previous months. Scrolling history of your past cycles.
Click any row to see which actions spent the most. If one feature is running away with your credits, this is how you catch it.
Watching a big job
Running a full proofread or developmental edit can cost a few thousand credits. Before the job runs, Bellwether shows an estimate with a confirm button. The estimate is usually within 10% of the final cost.
If you cancel mid-job, you're only charged for what's been processed. You can cancel from the job's status panel.
What happens when you run out
When your balance hits zero:
- Inline suggestions keep working. These are low-cost and run on a reduced budget even when your main allowance is spent.
- AI assistant chat stops. The panel shows a "Out of credits" message and a Top up button.
- Cover generation stops. You can still edit typography, colour, and uploaded art. You can't regenerate imagery.
- Full-book passes stop. Developmental edit, proofreading, line editing.
Nothing about your manuscript is affected. You can still write, format, and publish. Only AI features gate on credits.
Topping up
Three ways:
One-time top-up
Settings → Usage → Top up (or from the out-of-credits banner). Pick an amount:
| Credits | Price | Price per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | $10 | $2.00 |
| 15,000 | $25 | $1.67 |
| 40,000 | $60 | $1.50 |
Top-up credits don't expire. Credits bought with a top-up are used after your monthly allowance is exhausted.
Upgrade your plan
If you're consistently running out, upgrading your plan is cheaper per credit than topping up. Moving from Pro to Studio adds 55,000 credits/month for $50 more; the same volume as top-ups would cost $90.
Auto-reload
Under Settings → Usage → Auto-reload, you can set Bellwether to automatically top up when your balance falls below a threshold. Useful for writers running long jobs they don't want interrupted.
Auto-reload has two safeguards:
- Monthly spend limit. A cap on how much auto-reload can add per month. Defaults to $150.
- Cooldown. Maximum one auto-reload per 24 hours.
Turn auto-reload off under the same panel.
Fair-use limits
On top of credits, there are a few rate limits to prevent abuse:
- Cover generations. Maximum 20 per day per book.
@bookqueries. Maximum 30 per day per book.- Full manuscript passes. Maximum 3 per day per book.
These are generous for normal use. If you hit them regularly, you're probably doing something unusual; contact support to discuss.
Credits and refunds
- Credits are not refundable individually. They're included in your plan or bought as a top-up.
- Failed jobs refund automatically. If a cover generation or AI edit errors on our end, the credits are returned within 24 hours.
- Cancellation within 14 days of a new subscription refunds the subscription charge including unused credits. Contact support.
Conserving credits
If you're trying to stretch your allowance:
Use chapter scope by default
The assistant's default scope is the current chapter. Unless you specifically need book-wide context, don't prefix @book. Chapter-scope questions are 5–10x cheaper than book-wide.
Close long conversations
Long conversations accumulate context. Every new message includes the prior exchange, which means costs grow as conversations get longer. Close and restart when a conversation drifts past 10 exchanges.
Batch your proofreading
Running full-manuscript proofreads back to back repeats work. Instead: proofread once, apply the changes, wait until you've written more, then proofread again. You pay for each pass, so space them out.
Use inline suggestions over chat
Inline suggestions are cheaper than asking the assistant a question about the same sentence. If the assistant already caught something automatically, accept or reject the inline suggestion rather than opening a conversation about it.
Lower cover generation count
Rather than running three-candidate generations repeatedly, pick a direction early and iterate on typography, colour, and imagery adjustments. Typography and colour changes are free; only imagery regeneration costs.
Credit grants
If you hit a problem that wastes credits (a failed job, a bug, support troubleshooting that requires you to redo work):
- Contact support with the job timestamps.
- If we agree the credits were wasted due to our fault, they're refunded.
- Refunds land within 24 hours.
We don't grant credits as compensation for plan dissatisfaction or feature requests. Refunds are specifically for technical problems that cost you credits.
Enterprise pooled credits
For Studio plans with multiple users on one account (agency or publishing-house use), credits can be pooled. Contact support to set up pooling.
Pooled credits:
- Share a single balance across all users in the organisation.
- Can be sub-allocated per user with soft caps.
- Roll up to the organisation's monthly total.
- Unused pooled credits don't roll over month-to-month.
Common edge cases
My balance dropped faster than expected. Open Usage → Current session and check which feature is spending. Common culprits: running @book queries frequently, leaving a long assistant conversation open (context accumulates), or repeated cover regenerations.
I was charged for a failed job. Check Usage → Current session. If the job actually failed, credits refund within 24 hours. If they don't, contact support with the job timestamp.
My top-up credits expired. They shouldn't. Top-up credits don't expire. If your balance shows less than you expect, check the This month breakdown to see what was spent.
Auto-reload ran when I didn't want it to. You can turn it off anytime under Settings → Usage → Auto-reload. The last auto-reload is refundable if requested within 24 hours; contact support.
I'm seeing credit spending on days I didn't open Bellwether. Automated routines (scheduled proofreads, auto-updated metadata) run without you being signed in. Check Settings → Routines to see or disable them.
My team is sharing credits and someone's burning through them. Pooled credits include per-user usage reporting. Check the organisation dashboard to see per-user spend. Sub-allocate per-user if needed.