Most accounts that run out of credits early are spending them in one or two places without realizing it. This guide shows you where to look and what to change.

Before changing anything, look at the data.

The chart groups spend into categories such as AI Visibility, Content, and Snowy. Whichever band is tallest is the one worth tuning. Below the chart, every individual charge is listed with what triggered it, so you can see entries like "AI Prompt Tracked" with the exact prompt and platform count.

If you manage several Brands, use Filter to narrow to one, or Export CSV to analyze it in a spreadsheet.

This is the most common cause of unexpected spend, because the cost repeats on a schedule. The formula is simple:

prompts x platforms x 15 credits x refreshes per month

Every one of those four numbers is under your control, and all of them live on one screen: Settings -> Automation -> Prompt Tracking.

That screen does the math for you. At the top it shows a live estimate such as "You'll use about 405 credits every week for prompt tracking", with the breakdown underneath: active platforms x tracked prompts x 15 credits per response. Toggle a platform or change the frequency and the number updates immediately, so you can tune it before committing.

Your plan sets the fastest frequency you can pick, not a fixed one. You can always choose a slower one, and doing so cuts that whole line proportionally.

AI answers rarely change day to day. For most brands, weekly is enough to see the trend, and you can always refresh a single prompt manually when you ship something important.

Each platform you enable multiplies the cost of every prompt. Tracking 20 prompts across 6 platforms costs six times what tracking them on one platform does. Every platform card on that settings screen states "Consumes approximately 15 credits/response", so the trade-off is visible as you toggle.

Pick the platforms your audience actually uses. For most B2B and consumer brands that is ChatGPT, Google AI Overview plus one or two others. Add the rest only when you have credits to spare.

If a prompt has returned the same result for two months, it is spending credits to tell you nothing. Delete it or park it, and spend that budget on prompts closer to a buying decision.

Prompts where you already rank first, and prompts far outside your category, are usually the first to cut.

A manual refresh charges 15 credits per enabled platform immediately, on top of your scheduled refreshes. It is worth it right after you publish something significant. It is not worth it as a habit.

Article cost is set by the length band you choose, so choosing Long by default triples your spend:

Three short cluster posts usually earn more coverage than one long piece for the same 300 credits.

Regenerating runs the whole pipeline again and charges the full article cost a second time. Editing in the editor is free.

Regenerate only when the research or angle was wrong. If the draft is 80% right, edit it.

Most regeneration happen because the first draft missed the intent. Use Custom Instructions before generating to state the angle, the audience, what to include, and what to avoid. One good brief is far cheaper than two generations.

Setting your brand's content guidelines in Brand Settings has the same effect across every article.

Auto Optimize fixes audit issues in place for about a quarter of the article's generation cost. Auto content refresh costs about half. Both are cheaper than regenerating from scratch.

The featured image on a generated article is included at no extra cost. Only images you generate yourself in the editor cost 5 credits each, and stock searches cost 2. All your generated or used images are saved in your brand library.

A lot of the platform never touches your credit balance. If you are budget constrained, these carry the load:

A month spent fixing audit issues and internal links, with no generation at all, costs nothing and often moves rankings more than new content does.

Plan credits reset on your billing date, not the first of the month, and unused plan credits do not roll over. Leaving 800 credits unspent on day 29 wastes them.

If you are approaching your reset with credits left, that is the moment to generate the backlog or run a one-off manual refresh across your prompts.

Extra credits behave differently. They never expire, and your monthly allowance is always spent before they are touched, so a top up bought today is still there next quarter.

Both are valid. The rule of thumb:

Larger top up packs have a better rate per credit, and some plans carry an additional top up discount that is applied at checkout. See Plans, Extra Credits & Pricing.

Still not adding up? Email [email protected] with your Brand name and we will look at your usage with you.