Credit System Explained

Waveloom operates on a Credit System. Credits are the universal currency used to pay for the computational resources consumed by your flows, primarily the usage of AI models and specific platform actions.

What are Credits?

  • Unit of Consumption: Instead of charging varying amounts for different AI models or actions, Waveloom standardizes costs into credits.
  • Team-Based: Credits belong to a Team. All members working within that team's projects consume credits from the shared team balance.
  • Acquisition: Credits are added to your team's balance through Subscriptions, One-Time Purchases, or initial Trial Credits.

How are Credits Consumed?

Credits are deducted from your team's balance automatically whenever a Node in your flow performs a billable action upon successful completion.

Primary sources of credit consumption:

  1. AI Model Usage:

    • Nodes like Prompt, Image, Video, Transcription, and Synthesis consume credits each time they successfully execute.
    • The cost varies significantly based on the specific Model selected within the node's configuration (e.g., openai/gpt-4o costs more than openai/gpt-4o-mini).
    • Consumption might also depend on usage metrics like:
      • Tokens: For LLMs (Prompt node), cost depends on both input tokens (prompt) and output tokens (generated response).
      • Duration: For Transcription or Synthesis, cost might relate to the audio length.
      • Resolution/Size: For Image or Video generation.
    • Refer to model details within Waveloom or specific model documentation for relative cost indications.

  2. Platform Actions:

    • Certain non-AI nodes might also consume credits for specific operations.
    • Examples could include:
      • Storage Node (Write): Cost might be based on the amount of data written (e.g., per MB).
      • API Request / Web Scraper / Web Search: May have a small cost per request or based on data processed.
    • Refer to the specific node documentation or shared/action_costs.ts for details on non-model action costs.

Note: Failed node executions generally do not consume credits, although preceding successful nodes in the same run will have consumed credits.

Credit Types and Expiration

Waveloom uses different types of credits, primarily differing in their expiration rules:

  1. Standard Credits:

    • Source: Typically acquired through recurring Subscriptions (monthly/yearly).
    • Expiration: These credits usually expire at the end of the subscription's billing cycle (e.g., end of the month or year) if not used. Check your specific plan details.
    • Usage Order: Waveloom attempts to consume expiring credits first.

  2. Lifetime Credits:

    • Source: Typically acquired through One-Time Purchases or granted as Trial Credits.
    • Expiration: These credits do not expire. They remain in your team's balance until consumed.
    • Usage Order: These are generally consumed after any available Standard (expiring) credits.

Checking Your Balance

You can view your team's current available credit balance within the Waveloom dashboard, usually in the Account Settings -> Billing or Usage Monitoring sections.

Monitoring Consumption

Waveloom logs every credit consumption event as a CreditTransaction. You can analyze your usage patterns to understand where credits are being spent:

  • View recent transactions.
  • See usage aggregated by day, model type, or action type.
  • Optimize flows by choosing more cost-effective models or reducing unnecessary node executions.

Learn more about Usage Monitoring

Running Out of Credits

If a flow attempts to run a node that requires credits, but the team's available balance is insufficient (InsufficientCreditsError), that node execution (and subsequent nodes in the flow) will fail. Ensure your team maintains an adequate credit balance for your expected workflow usage.

Next Steps