Credits and pricing
One credit equals one AI action. Credits are bought in one-time packs — there is no subscription — and they never expire.
How a credit is spent
Every paid action in ClaudeLab debits credits at the moment it runs. The debit is logged in your account and visible from Profile → Billing → Usage. If a request fails after the debit, the credits are refunded automatically and the refund row appears in the same usage list.
Cost per action
The list below is canonical. The same numbers are shown on the public pricing page on claudelab.me/pricing, which is the source of truth — if any number on this docs page drifts, that page wins.
| Action | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation question | 1 credit | Adaptive diagnostic, per question |
| Practice session message | 1 credit | One ARIA turn in a chat session |
| Voice message | 1 credit | Same as a typed reply, transcription is free |
| MCQ batch | 1 credit per question | Demo test, gauntlet, study quiz, exam warm-up |
| Daily plan generation | 1 credit | First open of the day, idempotent within 24h |
| Weakness report | 2 credits | Closing summary at the end of a session |
| Recovery message | 2 credits | ARIA's nudge after a study gap |
| Milestone restructure | 2 credits | Triggered after a milestone fail |
| Exam-day warm-up plan | 2 credits | Plan generated the day before the exam |
| Post-exam debrief | 2 credits | Reflection plus AI feedback |
Other internal events you may see in your usage history — milestone restructure, recovery message, career path mapping, material indexing — follow the same model and surface in the list with their own credit cost when they run.
Voice messages cost the same as typing
Recording a voice message and sending it costs the same 1 credit as a typed reply. Transcription itself is free. Whether you tap the mic or use the keyboard, ARIA's reply is the same answer with the same credit charge.
Low-balance signals
I show two warnings before you actually hit zero:
- Below 20 credits — a yellow warning on the billing screen and a hint to top up soon.
- Below 10 credits — a red warning on the billing screen and a stronger nudge to top up before your next session.
The credits balance pill is also pinned to the top right of every screen in the app, so the number is always one glance away.
The "out of credits" modal
If you start an action and your balance is below the cost of that action, I do not silently fail. A paywall modal opens, names the action, shows the required cost vs. your current balance, and offers a Top up button that opens the pack picker right there. Your roadmap and progress are unaffected — you can pay, return to the app, and the next action will run with the topped-up balance.
Credits never expire
Once granted to your account, credits stay there. Whether they came from the onboarding starter grant, a pack purchase, or an admin grant, they have no expiry date. They are spent in FIFO order — oldest grants first — but that ordering is invisible to you and only matters for the refund calculation in Refund policy.
Buying credits
See Topping up credits for the actual buy flow.