How Credits Work
Where credits come from, what uses them, the order they are spent in, and how to earn free credits by referring a friend.
Credits are the unit of work in fluos. Every time the agent does something for you — plans a video, builds it, applies a follow-up, generates an image — it uses credits. Your balance is what pays for that work.
For prices and what each plan includes, see Plans and Credits. This page explains how the credits themselves behave.
Where credits come from
You can hold four kinds of credits at once. They behave differently:
| Kind | How you get it | Resets? | Who can spend it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan credits | Your Starter, Pro, or Studio plan: 800, 1,750, or 4,000 a month | Yes, every month. Unused plan credits do not roll over | Paid plans |
| Welcome credits | 300 one-time credits when you create an account | Never renew | Free plan |
| Referral credits | Referring a friend — see below | Never reset or expire | Any plan, including Free |
| Boost credits | Buying a Boost pack | Never expire | Paid plans |
Annual plans get the same monthly credits as monthly plans, refreshed every month.
Referral and Boost credits sit on top of your plan balance. They are not lost when your plan credits reset, and if you move to Free, Boost credits stay on your account until you return to a paid plan.
What uses credits
Anything the agent does on your behalf:
- Builds — creating a video or applying a change to it. This is where most credits go.
- Follow-up edits — a narrow change like "slow the logo reveal" costs a fraction of the original build.
- Conversation — questions, brainstorming, and storyboard revisions. On the Free plan these do not use credits, up to 20 replies a day. On paid plans they use credits too, but far fewer than a build.
- Generated media — AI images and video clips under MAX mode cost extra, on top of the build itself.
- Footage analysis — scanning long uploaded videos so the agent can reason about individual shots.
What makes a single job cost more or less:
- Length and scene count. Longer, multi-scene videos take more work.
- Thinking effort. High and Extra high use more than Medium. See The Chat Composer.
- Generated media. MAX on, with clips and images, costs more than MAX off.
A typical video uses about 216 credits, so a Starter month covers roughly three to four videos, Pro about eight, and Studio about eighteen. Your own numbers will vary with length and complexity.
Things that never cost credits: previews, playing and scrubbing, exporting existing versions, restoring a version, browsing the Library, and managing your workspace.
The order credits are spent in
When you do something that costs credits, fluos takes them in this order:
- Plan credits — the monthly allowance that is about to reset anyway.
- Referral credits.
- Boost credits, which never expire and so are kept for last.
On the Free plan, referral credits are used before the one-time welcome credits.
The point of the order is that nothing that lasts is spent while something that resets is still available.
Whose credits are used
Credits belong to the workspace owner. When a collaborator runs a build in a team workspace, it is paid from the owner's balance, the same way it is in the dashboard. That is why roles matter: give Read access to people who only need to review.
Where to see your balance
- Billing & credits — open the workspace switcher and choose it. It shows your plan, how much of the monthly allowance you have used, your total available credits, and your bonus credits (the ones that do not reset).
- In a chat — each chat shows how many credits it has used, so you can see what a given conversation cost.
When credits run out
New builds cannot start until credits are available again. Everything else — previews, exports of existing versions, the library — keeps working, and on the Free plan conversation is still free up to the daily limit.
To keep going you can:
- Wait for your plan credits to reset next month.
- Buy a Boost pack on a paid plan, for an immediate top-up.
- Upgrade to a bigger plan.
- Earn credits by referring a friend.
You also get an email when your credits are exhausted, so it does not catch you mid-project.
Stretching your credits
- Iterate narrowly — one change per message.
- Settle direction in the storyboard before spending a build on it.
- Leave MAX off unless the video needs generated media.
- Keep thinking effort on Medium for routine edits.
- Put standing brand rules in a snippet so you do not pay to re-explain them.
Refer a friend and earn free credits
Referring a friend is the simplest way to get credits without paying. You both get credits when they join, and you get more when they become a paying customer.
How it works
- Open Billing & credits and find Refer a friend.
- Copy your personal invite link and share it.
- Your friend creates their account through your link.
- You each get 300 credits as soon as they sign up.
- When they subscribe to a paid plan, you get 600 more credits.
The credits arrive automatically — there is nothing to claim.
What to know
- The link matters. Your friend has to create their account through your link for the referral to count. An account that already exists cannot be referred, and you cannot refer yourself.
- The 600-credit reward is paid once per friend, on their first paid subscription.
- Referral credits never reset or expire, and they can be spent on any plan, including Free. A friend who signs up through your link starts with 300 credits on top of their own free video.
- They go to your account, so they are available in every workspace you own.
A good fit for teams and creators
If you make videos for a team or a community, share the link where they already ask how you made something. People who see a finished video are the ones most likely to try it.