Administration
Usage, credits, and billing
How consumption is metered, and where to watch it.
ChatPlotDB meters in credits. Each action has a flat cost, so a turn's price is predictable before you run it rather than a function of how much context the model happened to read.
What consumes credits
| Action | Notes |
|---|---|
| A chat turn | The common case |
| A config generation | More expensive; it reads a whole schema |
| A refresh-script generation | Similar to a config generation |
| A web search | Small per-search fee, charged only when used |
Watching it
The Usage and Cost page shows real consumption per turn, per thread, and per organization. Programmatically, see the usage API.
Overdraft
Balances go slightly negative rather than cutting off a turn mid-answer. You are prompted to top up; work in flight completes.
Keeping costs down
The two biggest levers are model choice and dashboard refresh intervals. A dashboard of twenty cards refreshing hourly is far more consumption than the chat that created them. See refresh scripts.