Credits System
Credits are Alphio's usage currency for Alphio AI. Three sub-types plus a one-time Free allowance, spent in a fixed deduction order.
Find it at: /account/billing (web: avatar menu → Billing & Usage; app: Profile → Usage). Buy more on the Top-Up Credits page (/top-up-credits).
1. The Credit types
Every Credit you hold belongs to one of these pools. They differ in how they're granted, when they expire, and whether they roll over.
| Type | How granted | Expires | Rolls over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Credits | Refreshed every month by your paid tier (Basic 4,000 / Plus 6,000 / Pro 10,000 / Elite 22,500) — monthly on annual plans too | At the next monthly refresh | No — unused Monthly Credits are lost |
| Recharge Credits | Bought à la carte via the top-up flow for Custom Credits | 1 year from purchase | Yes, until its 1-year expiry |
| Limited-time Credits | Granted by promos, rewards (check-in, Growth Plan missions, quests, leaderboards, surveys) and other campaigns | On the date set when granted | No — expire on the set date |
| Free Credits | 400 Credits, granted once when you sign up | Don't expire | Not refreshed — once used, they're gone |
The Free allowance is a one-time grant, not a monthly one. While you have an active paid subscription it is set aside and can't be spent; if you later return to Free, whatever was left becomes usable again. Accounts flagged by Alphio's anti-abuse checks may not receive it.
During a 7-day trial, your Monthly Credits are limited to 1,000 regardless of tier; the full plan allowance arrives when the trial converts. See Subscription tiers.
The UI labels these pools slightly differently depending on the screen:
| This page | Billing & Usage (web) | Usage page (mobile web / app) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Credits | Plan | Subscription |
| Recharge Credits | Purchased | Add-on |
| Limited-time Credits | Bonus | Promo |
| Free Credits | Free | Free |
2. Deduction order
Alphio deducts Credits in a fixed order, regardless of what's consuming them:
Limited-time → Monthly → Recharge → Free.
This order is designed to:
- Consume expiring Credits first, so promo / reward grants don't go to waste.
- Then consume the monthly grant that resets at cycle end.
- Then touch the long-lived Recharge balance, since it stays valid for 1 year from purchase.
- Free Credits come last — and only when you're on the Free tier.
Example. You're on Pro with this balance: 200 Limited-time (expires next week), 5,000 Monthly, 3,000 Recharge. You run a research task that costs 800 Credits.
- The first 200 come from Limited-time (now 0).
- The next 600 come from Monthly (now 4,400).
- Recharge is untouched (still 3,000).
If you'd instead run a 6,000-Credit task: 200 Limited-time + 5,000 Monthly + 800 Recharge would all be drawn down, leaving 0 / 0 / 2,200.
3. Tracking your balance
On the web, open Billing & Usage (/account/billing):
- Credits — total remaining plus the breakdown by source (Free / Plan / Purchased / Bonus). Purchased Credits are noted as valid 1 year from purchase; Plan Credits show their next reset date.
- Usage — Credits spent over the last 7, 30, or 90 days, with a daily average.
- Credits activity — this month's Credits earned and spent, in two columns.
On mobile web and in the app, the Usage page also lists every Recharge and Limited-time bucket with its expiry date, and a daily usage chart split by pool. See Usage.
4. Earning Credits
Beyond your subscription grant and Custom Credits purchases, you can earn Limited-time Credits through rewards such as:
- Daily Check-In — see Growth Plan
- Growth Plan mission rewards
- Review & Earn
- Quest and leaderboard rewards
- Survey rewards
- Promotional grants
Inviting friends no longer earns Credits — see Referral Program. Which reward surfaces you see can vary by account and campaign.
5. Buying Credits
To buy Credits outside the subscription cycle, use the top-up flow. Custom Credits land as Recharge Credits and are valid for 1 year from purchase — they roll over between billing cycles until that expiry. Each top-up forms its own bucket with its own expiry date.
Custom Credits require an active paid subscription (Basic / Plus / Pro / Elite) and are unavailable during a trial. Free users are prompted to upgrade before purchase.
See Custom Credits for the purchase and refund details.
6. What consumes Credits
Alphio deducts Credits for the AI work it performs, for example:
- Alphio AI chat — each reply, scaled by model and context size
- Tasks — each run of an asynchronous Alphio AI job (research, monitoring, scheduled analysis)
- Backtests — billed on actual usage once the run completes
- AI trading agents — planning and decision cycles for Agentic Trading and similar agents
Opening Signals products doesn't consume Credits — Signals access is controlled by your tier. There's no fixed price per action; your exact charges appear in the Credits activity / ledger.
This page is available as plain Markdown at https://alphio.ai/docs/reference/credits-system.md. An index of every page, with a one-line summary each, is at https://alphio.ai/docs/llms.txt.