How credits work
Credits pay for the AI work behind your parts: talking through your idea, reading your photos, and building and editing the model. One credit is one cent's worth of usage. You only pay for work that happens, and failed builds are always free.
Your balance
creditsYour spending caps are off, so messages and builds are charged their full cost, up to 60 credits per message and 250 per build. Turn them back on in the Studio by clicking the "Caps off" button.
What things cost
| Action | Typical | Most it can cost (default caps) |
|---|---|---|
| Sending a chat message | 2 to 4 credits | 5 |
| Adding a photo to a message | about 1 to 2 extra credits the first time it's read | counts toward the message's cap |
| Building the first version, or applying a change | 10 to 30 credits | 40 |
| A build that fails | Free | |
| Uploading a photo, viewing versions, downloading STL or STEP | Free | |
A typical part, from first idea through 3 changes, uses about 60 to 120 credits.
Why the cost varies
Each action is priced on the actual AI work it takes. A few things make it cost more:
- Longer conversations. The AI re-reads the conversation so far each time, so messages late in a long chat cost a little more.
- Photos. Reading a photo takes more work than reading text.
- Harder parts. A complex build may need the AI to think longer, or to fix its first attempt.
How long your own message is barely matters.
Spending caps
Caps set the most a single message or build can cost. They're on by default: the AI works within the cap, and you're never charged more than it, even when the work cost us more. You can change them in the Studio by clicking the Caps button.
| Setting | Chat message | Build or change | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 3 | 20 | Simple parts, keeping costs down |
| Default | 5 | 40 | Most parts |
| High | 10 | 80 | Complex parts that need more thinking and retries |
| Caps off | Full cost, up to 60 per message and 250 per build | The hardest parts. The AI gets the most room and an extra retry with a stronger model. | |
With a low cap, the AI may stop retrying a difficult build sooner. That build is still free, and you can raise the cap and try again.
Save credits
- Give the key measurements up front, in mm or inches. It saves back-and-forth.
- One clear, well-lit photo beats several blurry ones.
- Ask for one change at a time, and say exactly what and how much ("make the wall 4 mm thick").
- Start a new project for a new part rather than continuing a very long chat.
Your credit history
| When | What | Credits |
|---|