Billing & credits
One unit, the credit, charged only on success. What each request costs, how audio is billed, what the plans include, and how top-ups and rollover work.
One unit: the credit
Every plan, top-up and request is measured in credits. A credit is charged only when a request succeeds, so the price of a call is the price of an answer. A caption transcript or non-empty listing page uses one credit. A result from AI Fallback Transcription, which runs by default when a video has no captions, can use several credits, depending on audio duration.
| Request | Cost |
|---|---|
| Video transcript from an existing caption track | 1 credit, any length |
AI Fallback Transcription (by default when there is no caption track, or mode: "audio") | 1 credit per started 5 minutes of audio, minimum 1, charged on delivery |
| A channel, playlist or search listing, per page | 1 credit |
Channel page polled with since_video_id, new videos or not | 1 credit |
| Monitor check, new videos or not | 1 credit, plus the transcripts it delivers |
GET /api/v2/me, GET /api/v2/health, polling a job | Free |
Any failed, blocked, or no_transcript result, or an empty page without since_video_id | Free |
Batch calls are priced per entry, on the same table: a batch of 50 that returns 47 caption transcripts costs 47 credits. Entries that go to AI Fallback Transcription are billed by audio duration, only on delivery.
AI Fallback Transcription, worked out
Captions are one credit regardless of length. AI Fallback Transcription is billed by duration, and only once the transcript is delivered, so a job that fails half-way costs nothing.
| Audio length | Credits |
|---|---|
| Under 30 seconds | 1 |
| 10 minutes | 2 |
| 20 minutes | 4 |
| 1 hour | 12 |
| 4 hours (the cap) | 48 |
If you want to guarantee a request never spends more than one credit, send mode: "captions". It fails with no_captions instead of using AI Fallback Transcription. A 202 charges nothing; the delivered transcript reports the actual charge in usage.credits_spent, beside your usage.balance.
Plans
| Plan | Monthly | Credits a month | Per 1,000 | Rate limit | Batch cap | Rollover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, no card | 50 | 10 / min | 50 | No | |
| Basic | $5 | 1,000 | $5.00 | 60 / min | 50 | Up to 2x |
| Pro | $15 | 7,500 | $2.00 | 300 / min | 50 | Up to 2x |
| Mega | $45 | 35,000 | $1.30 | 900 / min | 500 | Up to 2x |
| Scale | $229 | 250,000 | $0.92 | 900 / min | 500 | Up to 2x |
Credits refill on each renewal. Annual billing charges ten months for twelve and grants the same monthly credits. On every paid plan, unused plan credits carry into the next month and the new grant is added on top, until the plan balance reaches twice the monthly allowance. On Pro, spend 3,000 of 7,500 and you renew with 12,000; leave that untouched and the next renewal stops at the 15,000 cap. A plan change never removes credits: a balance above the new plan's cap is kept and simply gains nothing at ordinary renewal until it falls below the cap. The free tier does not roll over; it resets to 50 each month.
Upgrades charge the full new-plan price and start a fresh billing period, with no time-based proration or refund of the old period. Successful payment adds the full new monthly allowance to your unused credits, without applying the renewal cap to that upgrade grant. Top-up credits are untouched. For example, Basic to monthly Pro costs $15, adds 7,500 credits, and moves the next renewal to one month after upgrading. Annual plans still receive credits monthly. Downgrades and switches to a shorter billing interval take effect at the next renewal. The billing portal shows the charge and renewal date before confirmation.
Top-ups
A top-up adds credits to your balance without changing your plan, at the plan's own per-1,000 rate. Top-up credits never expire and are spent after plan credits.
Because the card fee is mostly fixed, the smallest bundle grows with the plan so that one purchase is always at least $5:
| Plan | Per 1,000 | Smallest bundle |
|---|---|---|
| No plan | $10.00 | 1,000 credits for $10 |
| Basic | $5.00 | 1,000 credits for $5 |
| Pro | $2.00 | 5,000 credits for $10 |
| Mega | $1.30 | 5,000 credits for $6.50 |
| Scale | $0.92 | 10,000 credits for $9.20 |
Buy any number of bundles from the dashboard's Plans page. A lapsed subscription (a failed renewal) cannot top up until the payment method is fixed.
Running out
There is no overage billing. When the balance reaches zero, requests return 402 insufficient_credits and nothing is charged. Fix it by topping up or upgrading; the free 50 credits return each month for accounts without a plan.
Checking your balance
GET /api/v2/me returns the current balance and is free. The MCP server exposes the same figure as the get_credits tool. The dashboard shows spend per day and per key.