Credits and Plans
Permanent credit packs, shared credits for models and tools, usage details, and code redemption
Buy permanent credits
Current public pricing focuses on permanent credit packs: purchase once and pay for what you use, with no monthly fee or monthly reset. See the Pricing page for the prices, credit quantities, and purchase links for the six packs.
After purchasing, redeem the code you receive under “Settings → Redeem Code.” The legacy Dashboard also has a credit redemption entry. After successful redemption, check your balance in “Credits and Plans.”
How models and tools are billed
Platform models and research tools share your account's credits, but their usage is recorded separately:
| Usage | Model charges | Tool charges |
|---|---|---|
| Platform smart model | Settled according to actual model usage and the current price list | Search, parsing, drawing, and other tools follow their own billing rules |
| Custom model | Charged by the provider you configure | Calls to platform tools still consume Ai4Scholar credits |
| Standalone tool or API | Follows the rules of the service called | Unit prices and request limits are described on the relevant page or in the API documentation |
If a platform model is marked “Free” or shows a free-use end date, that offer applies only to the corresponding model calls. It does not mean every tool is free. Testing a custom model connection also creates a small amount of usage with your provider.
Balance, reservations, and settlement
- Available credits are the amount you can currently use.
- An active model request may reserve credits. Reserved credits are temporarily unavailable to other requests.
- When a request ends, charges are settled based on actual usage and unused reserved credits are released. Stopping an entire research task does not make calls that already completed free.
- Refunds for failed tool calls follow the relevant service's rules. Check the charge and refund details rather than assuming the entire task was free because its final status is “Failed.”
Legacy membership accounts may still show monthly credits and an expiration date. Those benefits continue under the account's existing rules and should not be taken as evidence that the current pricing page still sells that subscription. Available monthly credits are used before permanent credits, with any shortfall handled according to the account's rules. Free allowances exclusive to the website do not automatically provide free API usage.
View usage
“Usage” in the research sidebar provides an account overview; “Settings → Usage” shows the details. Platform model records are also available under “Settings → Model Settings.”
When reconciling usage, distinguish charges, refunds, and reservations, and check whether a custom model was used. Charges collected by your provider do not appear as Ai4Scholar top-up records.
When credits run out
The page notifies you when available credits are insufficient and provides links to buy a credit pack or redeem a code. Your current input and existing results are preserved. After adding credits, use the page's continue or retry action. When PDF parsing fails, uploaded files and existing results are also preserved; you do not need to fill everything in again just to add credits.
If your account still has a balance but the API reports insufficient quota, also check whether that API key has a separate spending limit.
Earn bonus credits
Registration promotions, redemption codes, and Invite Friends may offer bonus credits. The current promotion specifies the conditions and amounts. For team usage, get in touch through Community and Contact.