How credits work

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Free plan limits

The Free plan has two limits that work together: You need both credits and a daily message available to build with AI. Reaching either limit prevents you from sending another message. Paid plans do not have a daily message limit. Only the plan’s monthly credit limit applies.

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What uses credits

Credits power the usage-based features in your Zite workspace: building and modifying apps with AI, the database agent, and AI fields in databases. These features use credits based on how much work they do:

• Building with AI in Chat, Plan, or Build mode
• Using the Database Agent
• AI fields in databases
• Apps using AI with the Zite API key
• Generating documents

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What does not use credits

Some actions do not consume credits:

• Manual edits, such as changing text, colors, spacing, or layout directly
• Applying a theme from the design panel
• Zite Database storage and standard database operations
• Users visiting your published apps
• Workflow runs from the editor
• Fixing app errors with Fix it for me
• Building over MCP from your own AI tool, which runs on that tool’s tokens rather than your Zite credits

After the free two-week trial, building over MCP requires a Business plan with at least 400 credits/month, or a Team or Enterprise plan. Connecting over MCP to query and edit your data is available on every plan, including Free.

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How building uses credits

When you build with AI, the number of credits used depends on how much work Zite needs to do. Simple edits usually use fewer credits, while broad changes, new screens, databases, workflows, or advanced logic use more. Credit usage can depend on:

• The complexity of your prompt
• The model used
• The size of your app
• How many files, screens, or database tables Zite needs to inspect
• How many changes Zite needs to make

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Check credit usage

You can check how many credits a request used by clicking the brain icon at the bottom of a message. This opens a details panel showing the model used, time worked, actions taken, files modified, and credits used. To view total usage for an app, click View app usage underneath the message details. To see your account-level credit usage and remaining balance, open Billing & Usage.

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How credits reset

Reset timing depends on your plan. Free-plan credits reset at the start of each calendar month. The daily message allowance resets separately at midnight UTC, provided you still have Free credits available. On a paid Apps plan, credits reset every month based on the exact day and time you first subscribed. For example, if you subscribed on July 13 at 5:15 PM, your credits will reset on August 13 at 5:15 PM. Annual plans are billed once per year, but their credits still reset monthly on the same subscription day and time. For example, if an annual plan started on July 13 at 5:15 PM, credits reset on August 13 at 5:15 PM, September 13 at 5:15 PM, and so on. Unused monthly credits do not roll over. If you upgrade to a higher plan during a billing cycle, your total credit limit is set to the new plan’s limit for that cycle.

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Workflow runs are tracked separately

Running workflows from your published apps—to read and write data, connect to integrations, and call third-party APIs—is metered through workflow runs, not credits. Each plan includes a monthly workflow run allowance alongside its credit allowance. Learn more in Workflow runs and your monthly limit.

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Add more credits

If you need more credits, you can upgrade your Apps plan. Higher plans include higher monthly credit limits.

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Cap what each person can spend

Credits are shared across your organization, so one person building heavily draws from the same pool as everyone else. On Team and Enterprise plans, admins can cap how much any one member spends building with AI — organization-wide, or per person. See AI credit limits for the full setup.

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Downgrading after deployment

If you upgrade to a paid plan to create an app and then downgrade after your app is fully built and published:

• Zite will continue to host your app on the Free plan as long as you’re not using a custom domain.
• The app creator and app users can still access the app free of charge.
• All paid plans remove Zite branding from your app. It will reappear if you go back to the Free Zite plan. Removing branding from authentication emails requires the Business plan or above and must be configured separately in authentication email settings.