How credits work

One balance pays for every tool. See what is free, what costs credits, and how to check a price before you run anything.

Lesson 4 of 5
Beginner
6 min read
Checked against the product 2026-11-03

Listen to this lesson · 2:47

In shortAI Rank Lab runs on one credit balance. Credits come from your plan, one-time packs, the onboarding bonus and refunds. Running a tool spends credits and most tools show the price before you run; reading results you already have is free. When you run short, the tool stops and offers a top-up. Buy packs in Settings → Coins & Credits. A few older tools still use a separate legacy coin wallet.

One balance for everything

Almost every paid action in the dashboard, from an AEO and GEO audit to a prompt run, an article or an email campaign, is paid from the same balance. There is no separate allowance per tool; the few exceptions are listed at the end of this lesson. You'll see the number in the dashboard header; clicking it opens Settings → Coins & Credits.

You'll meet the word "coins" in a few places, such as the Buy Coins button or the per-scan price printed under the audit box. In almost every case that is just an older name for the same credits.

Running a tool spends credits. Reading stored results is free.

Where credits come from

Source	What it is	Where
Onboarding bonus	A one-time gift when you finish onboarding, once per account and per network.	Automatic
Plan	A monthly credit allowance with a subscription.	Settings → Plans, see /pricing
Credit pack	A one-time top-up of 1,000, 2,000 or 6,000 credits. No subscription.	Settings → Coins & Credits
Refund	Credits returned when a tool reserves more than it uses or fails after charging.	Automatic, listed under Refunds

What costs credits and what is free

The rule is simple: running something that calls an AI model, a search provider or a crawler costs credits. Looking at results you already have, building comparisons from runs you've done, and publishing an article you wrote are free.

Some tools charge by size. A site audit charges per page crawled; a prompt run charges per AI engine, so running one question on four engines costs four times one engine. Keyword research reserves the worst case up front and refunds what it didn't use, and the backlink checker only charges when data comes back.

Checking a price before you run

Most tools print the price next to the run button, for example under the AEO and GEO checker's URL box.
Bigger actions, such as generating an article or an action plan, open a confirmation box that says what it will cost and what you have. Confirm is disabled if you can't afford it.
Prompt runs cost per engine, and the Select Engines to Run box starts with every engine ticked and shows no price. Untick the ones you don't need before you click Run Now.

Watch the engine count

The brand visibility setup wizard and the Run Now box pre-select several engines. On a small balance, tick one engine. Otherwise the run asks for several times what you expected and stops for lack of credits, and the Run Now box only says "Run failed. Please try again."

When you run out

If you try a paid action without enough credits, nothing runs and nothing is charged. Many tools open a Buy Credits window that says how many credits you tried to use and how many you have. A few older pages show an "Insufficient credits" message in the page instead. Either way, top up and run it again. Ongoing services stop too: the AI bot tracker pauses at zero and restarts after a top-up.

Buying a pack

Open Coins & CreditsGo to Settings → Coins & Credits, or click your balance in the dashboard header. The Your balance card shows what you have, with totals for purchased, used, added and used this month, bonuses and refunds.
Settings → Coins & Credits.
Pick a packUnder Quick top-up, choose 1,000, 2,000 or 6,000 credits. Switch between USD and INR to see the price in your currency; the largest pack is marked Best value. Click Buy and pay in the checkout window.
Prices are shown on the page.
Check the historyUsage by feature shows where your credits went. Transaction history lists every addition and charge; filter by Usage, Purchases, Subscription, Bonus, Refunds or Expired, and use Export CSV for your records.

Tip

The top-up card says pack credits are valid for 60 days. Buy what you expect to use in that window, and use a plan if you need credits every month.

Two exceptions to know about

The legacy coin wallet

A few older tools still charge a separate legacy coin balance instead of your credits: the competitor content-strategy scan and its Generate Insights step on AI search → Brand visibility → Competitors, the public LLMs.txt generator page and the AXP checker page. That wallet isn't shown on the Coins & Credits page, so these tools can say you have too few coins while your credit balance is healthy. The dashboard's own LLMs.txt generator under Content uses normal credits. If you hit this, contact us.

The second exception is team sharing. Credits you allocate to a teammate leave your balance straight away, but their usage is still charged to your live balance, so the allocation is not a spending cap. Share a domain covers this.

Check yourself

1. You run one prompt on four AI engines. How is it charged?

2. Which of these is free?

3. The AXP checker page says you don't have enough coins, but your Coins & Credits page shows a large balance. Why?

0 of 3 answered.

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Transcript

This lesson explains how you pay for AI Rank Lab. It's simpler than it looks. There is one credit balance. Almost every paid action, an audit, a prompt run, an article, an email campaign, comes out of it. You'll see the number in the dashboard header. Click it to open Coins and Credits in Settings. You'll sometimes see the word coins, like on the Buy Coins button. In almost every case that's just an older name for the same credits. Where do credits come from? Four places. The onboarding bonus, once per account. A plan, which gives you a monthly allowance. Credit packs, which are one-time top-ups of one thousand, two thousand or six thousand credits. And refunds, when a tool reserved more than it used, or failed after charging. What costs credits? Running things. Anything that calls an AI model, a search provider or a crawler. What's free? Looking at results you already have, building comparisons from runs you've already done, and publishing an article you wrote. Some tools charge by size. A site audit charges per page. A prompt run charges per AI engine, so one question on four engines costs four times as much as on one engine. Keyword research reserves the worst case and refunds the rest. You'll normally see the price before you run. Most tools print it next to the run button. Bigger actions open a confirmation box with the cost and your balance. Watch the engine picker on prompt runs. It starts with every engine ticked and shows no price, so on a small balance, untick all but one. If you don't have enough, nothing runs and nothing is charged. Many tools open a Buy Credits window. A few older pages just show a message. Top up and try again. To buy a pack, open Coins and Credits, pick a pack under Quick top-up, choose US dollars or rupees, and click Buy. Below that you'll see usage by feature and a full transaction history you can export. The top-up card says pack credits are valid for sixty days, so buy what you'll use. Two exceptions. First, a few older tools still use a separate legacy coin wallet: the competitor content scan, and the public LLMs dot txt generator and AXP checker pages. That wallet isn't on your credits page. If one of them says you're out of coins, contact us. Second, credits you allocate to a teammate leave your balance, but they aren't a spending cap. In the next lesson, you'll spend your first credits: one audit and one prompt in thirty minutes.

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