Usage Metering
Circuitry meters your usage so you always know what you're spending — and so most of what you do stays free. This page explains what counts, what doesn't, and where to check your balance.
Credits, in one sentence
Credits are Circuitry's single unit for cloud usage. Your plan includes a monthly credit allowance, shared across cloud AI and hosted automation:
| Plan | Monthly credits |
|---|---|
| Free | — |
| Hobby | 3,000 |
| Personal | 6,000 |
| Pro | 15,000 |
| Business | 45,000 (pooled across your team) |
What's free
Most of Circuitry doesn't touch your credits at all:
- Everything in the editor — building and running workflows, designs, sheets, notebooks and code while you work in Circuitry.
- Running on your own computer — workflows, code, terminals and AI that run through the desktop app or a paired Circuit use your hardware, so they're never metered.
- Bringing your own AI — when you connect your own API keys or a local model, that usage is billed by your provider (or free, for local models). It doesn't draw Circuitry credits.
What uses credits
Credits are spent only on things Circuitry runs in the cloud for you:
- AI — using Circuitry's built-in AI (chat, agents, wizards, code completion, inline edits, image generation). How much you spend depends on the model you pick and how much it has to process.
- Cloud Circuits — the time a cloud dev machine spends running, and the data it sends.
- Cloud Circuit disk — the disk a machine keeps. This is its own line because it bills even while the machine is switched off — stopping a server stops the running charge, not the disk one. Delete a machine you've finished with to stop it.
- Cloud automation — workflows that run in the cloud on Circuitry's servers, such as webhook-triggered and scheduled automations, and code execution.
- Home Circuit — only when your connection has to be relayed. When Circuitry can reach your computer directly it costs nothing and isn't metered, so the fast path is also the free one.
- Data transfer — bandwidth out of Circuitry's own servers.
All of it shares ONE pool, so you decide how to split it — a heavy AI month and a heavy automation month both just draw down the same credits.
Checking your usage
Open the app menu and choose Usage (it's also under Help → Usage). You'll see how many credits are left of this month's allowance, how many you've used, and a breakdown of exactly what spent them — AI, Cloud Circuits, Cloud Circuit disk, cloud automation, Home Circuit and data transfer — plus roughly how much longer your balance lasts at the rate you've been working, and how much cloud storage is in use.
Your plan's monthly credits reset on the 1st, whatever date your subscription renews on. Credits you buy are different — they don't expire, and they're only spent once that month's plan credits are used up. The Usage screen counts down to the reset — "Resets in 11 days · 1 Sep" — so you can see whether what's left will get you there.
For the individual charges behind those totals, choose Every charge on that screen (or go to dashboard → Usage & charges) — every metered call, with what it was and what it cost.
On the Free plan the same screen is still worth opening: it lists what each category covers, so you can see what a paid plan's credits would actually buy you.
When you reach your limit
Circuitry warns you as you approach your monthly allowance. If you run out, cloud AI and hosted automations pause until your next monthly cycle or until you upgrade your plan. Your editor work, and anything running on your own computer or your own AI keys, keeps going.
Spending fewer credits
- Use your own AI keys or a local model — add them under Settings → Models to run AI on your own account or hardware and skip metered cloud AI.
- Run on your own compute — a paired Circuit or the desktop app runs workflows and AI locally, off the meter.
- Pick the right model — faster, lighter models cost fewer credits; save the largest models for when you need them.