> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.audivo.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits

> One credit per audio minute, a ceiling you agree to before spending, and what happens to the money at every step.

A **credit is one minute of audio**, rounded up per episode: a 61-minute
episode is 62 credits. Every plan comes with credits, and the ledger is the
one place money moves.

## Plans

| plan    | monthly price |    included credits |
| ------- | ------------: | ------------------: |
| free    |           \$0 | 120, once at signup |
| hobby   |           \$9 |     1,200 per month |
| startup |          \$19 |     3,000 per month |
| growth  |          \$49 |     9,000 per month |
| scale   |         \$149 |    30,000 per month |

A paid plan's allowance renews each billing period. Credits bought on top of
a plan are their own lots, spent after the allowance, and the only credits a
refund can ever return. Free and promotional credits are non-refundable.

## The four moments

| moment                | what happens                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Quote**             | Each episode gets `estimated_credits` from its declared duration and `quote_ceiling_credits`, the estimate plus 25% rounded up. Nothing is reserved.                                                          |
| **Confirm**           | Each fresh job reserves its ceiling; each cached episode settles at once at the cached-read price. Your balance must cover the whole group or the confirm is refused as `payment_required` and nothing moves. |
| **Completion**        | The job settles at the measured audio minutes, **capped at its ceiling**, and releases the rest.                                                                                                              |
| **Failure or cancel** | The whole reservation is released, exactly once.                                                                                                                                                              |

The ceiling is the most an episode can ever settle for. Feeds routinely
under-state their length, which is what the 25% is for; an episode that runs
past even that is charged the ceiling, never more. A quote is valid for
fifteen minutes; confirming a lapsed one is refused as `quote_expired`.

## Cached reads

A transcript another account paid to produce costs you one tenth of its audio
minutes, rounded up, never under one credit: a 78-minute episode reads for 8.
The account that produced it reads it again for the floor of one. A read you
paid for yourself is free forever after. Details on
[Cache behaviour](/cache).

## Reading your balance

Every quote response carries `balance_credits` and `reserved_credits`, so an
API-key caller always knows what it can spend before it confirms. The usage
page in the dashboard shows the period's spend by day.

## Refunds and deletion

Refunds apply to unused paid credit lots only, to the original charge. The
refund operation is declared in the API reference and marked there as not yet
routed while billing runs in test mode; ask through the dashboard until it
is. Deleting your account **forfeits unspent paid credits**: the lots stay
keyed to the deleted account so a dispute can still be answered, and a later
signup cannot reach them. Refund first if you want a balance back.