Credits are the currency behind AI features in Zense AI.

Your account tracks how much you can spend (limit) and how much you have used (usage) for each pool.

Understanding the three pools helps you plan usage, read your balance in Settings, and — for schools — assign credits fairly across teachers and students.

Three credit pools

Chat credits and studio credits are tracked separately. Image and Video Studio credits can be topped up on their own.

Chat credits vs tokens

Chat is not billed token-by-token in the app. Each model has a fixed credit cost per assistant message (shown in the model picker).

Behind the scenes, that cost is derived from OpenRouter pricing using a representative message profile (~12,000 input tokens + ~1,000 output tokens per message — history, system prompt, and tool context make chats input-heavy). The raw cost is then compressed onto a 0.5–12 credit scale so cheap and flagship models are not dozens of times apart — friendlier for school shared pools.

Tokens still matter for you: Settings → Usage and conversation details show promptTokens, completionTokens, and totalTokens for transparency — but your billable unit is one message, not each token.

What one chat credit is worth

Chat credits come from your subscription plan, not a standalone top-up SKU. The Pro plan (99 HKD/month, 2,000 chat credits) sets the reference value:

• 1 chat credit ≈ 0.0495 HKD (99 ÷ 2,000)

Image and video studio credits are sold separately at different rates (see the studio pricing articles in this collection).

Image and video credit worth

A chat credit is worth roughly 55% of an image credit — chat credits are granted in larger monthly bundles (e.g. 2,000 vs 200 image on Pro).

Individual plan allotments (monthly)

Chat credits on paid plans reset each month on your reset date. Studio credits from your plan reset with the same cycle; personal studio top-ups are tracked separately.

School accounts

School users draw from school-managed pools instead of individual plans:

• Chat — shared teacher pool and student pool (configured in School Management).
• Image Studio — per-user cap (default 100 per member) plus a school bonus pool from admin top-ups.
• Video Studio — per-user cap (default 200 per member) plus a school bonus pool.

See School credits: users, top-up & assign in this collection for the full admin workflow.

Where to check your balance

• Settings → Usage — limits, usage charts, and transaction history.
• Settings → Billing — current plan, upgrades, and billing history.
• Composer / Studio — estimated cost before you generate (studio checks credits before starting).

School users who hit a limit should contact their school admin. Individual users can upgrade or top up from Settings.