Credits

#Overview

Credits are the balance your organization uses to fund its usage of Opal. The work your organization runs on the platform consumes model tokens, and model token costs are expressed in Opal credits — so the balance is what keeps agents, tasks, and flows running. Resources adopted from the Marketplace are charged in credits too.

Credits are managed in Organization Settings, the central area where an organization's profile and preferences, security, membership, teams and roles, billing, and credits are administered. In practice, managing credits comes down to four things:

• The balance and its transactions — how many credits the organization holds, and the transactions behind that number.
• Adding credits — a one-time top-up, a recurring credit subscription, or an automatic top-up triggered by a threshold.
• Staying informed — billing alerts, so nobody has to remember to check.
• Knowing what draws credits down — so the balance is a number people can reason about rather than watch nervously.

The reason this matters is continuity. A digital workforce is only useful if it keeps working, and credits are what fund it. Set up well, funding becomes something the organization decides once and reviews occasionally, instead of something it keeps having to return to.

Two boundaries are worth setting up front. The subscription — the billing profile, payment methods, plan, and seats — is a separate topic, covered by Billing & Subscription. And money flowing the other way, when your organization sells its own resources on the Marketplace, is paid out in US dollars rather than credits: see Payouts.

#Key Capabilities

• See the balance and its transactions. The organization's credit balance and its credit transactions are viewable in Organization Settings, so the number can always be traced back to what produced it.
• Top up on demand. Credits can be purchased as a one-time top-up whenever the organization needs more.
• Subscribe to credits on a cadence. A recurring credit subscription adds credits on a monthly, quarterly, or annual cadence, so a steady level of usage is funded without anyone acting each time.
• Top up automatically below a threshold. An automatic top-up adds credits whenever the balance falls below a threshold the organization sets.
• Get told, not surprised. Billing alerts keep the people responsible informed about the organization's billing and credits.
• See model costs in credits before committing. Each model in the models catalog shows its token costs in Opal credits, so builders can compare candidates on cost as well as capability before choosing one.
• Pay for adopted Marketplace resources in credits. Resources adopted from other organizations are charged to the buying organization in credits, against a usage-based pricing unit set by the resource type.
• Administer it alongside everything else. Credits sit in Organization Settings with the organization's profile and preferences, security, membership, teams and roles, and billing — one place for organization administration.

#How it Works

Credits belong to the organization. The balance is held at organization level, not per member or per space, and is managed in Organization Settings. That is what makes it a shared resource: whatever members and agents do across the organization's spaces draws on the same balance.

Transactions explain the balance. Credit transactions are viewable alongside the balance, so a change in the number is a matter of record rather than guesswork — useful when finance wants to reconcile a period, and useful when a team asks why usage moved.

There are three ways to add credits, and they work well together.

• A one-time top-up is a single purchase of credits. It suits an unpredictable month, a pilot, or a one-off push of work.
• A recurring credit subscription purchases credits on a monthly, quarterly, or annual cadence. It suits a known, steady baseline of usage and makes credits a predictable line in a budget.
• An automatic top-up adds credits when the balance falls below a threshold the organization chooses. It is the safety net under the other two, covering the months when usage runs ahead of the plan.

Most organizations settle on a recurring subscription for the baseline plus an automatic top-up as protection, and reach for one-time top-ups only when something unusual happens.

Billing alerts close the loop. Alerts keep the people accountable for funding informed about billing and credits, so a falling balance surfaces on its own rather than waiting for someone to look. Paired with an automatic top-up, they turn credit management into something to review rather than to monitor.

What draws credits down. Two sources of consumption are documented in this documentation set, and both are visible to the people making the choices:

• Model usage. Every model in the models catalog shows its token costs in Opal credits. Because cost is expressed in the same unit as the balance, a builder comparing two candidate models can weigh capability against credit cost in one view before committing. Opal also applies token caching and other optimizations automatically to reduce token costs, with no configuration required. Model selection itself is covered by Models.
• Marketplace resources. When your organization adopts a resource published by another organization, it is charged in credits against a usage-based pricing unit determined by the resource type — for example per 1M output tokens for an agent template, per 1K invocations for a guardrail, or per 1K renders for a widget. Costs therefore track actual usage rather than arriving as a flat charge. Listings can also be published free of charge, in which case there is no price to pay. How listings are priced is covered by Listings.

Credits and the subscription do different jobs. The subscription is the commercial relationship — what the organization is subscribed to, how many seats it holds, and which capabilities that unlocks. Credits fund the usage itself. Both are administered in Organization Settings, and an organization needs both: a plan that permits the work, and a balance that pays for it.

#Additional Notes

• Rates and amounts are not documented here. Credit prices, pack sizes, the value of a credit in currency, and the exact rates charged for each kind of usage are not covered in this documentation. Check the credits section of Organization Settings for what applies to your organization.
• Cost savings from token caching are not quantified. Token caching and other optimizations are applied automatically to reduce token costs, but this documentation does not publish a figure for the saving.
• Marketplace payouts are in US dollars, not credits. Buyers pay in credits; selling organizations are paid out in US dollars, after Opal's service fee. That side of the Marketplace is covered by Payouts.
• The subscription is covered separately. The billing profile, payment methods, subscription plan, and seats all belong to Billing & Subscription.
• Cost visibility is not only an administrator's concern. Builders and operators see costs expressed in credits while choosing a model or adopting a Marketplace resource, which is where most cost decisions are actually made.
• Short definitions of the terms used here are in one place: Glossary.

#Related Features

• Billing & Credits — The cluster this page belongs to: the subscription, how the organization pays, and the credits that fund its usage. Billing & Credits
• Billing & Subscription — The billing profile, payment methods, subscription plan, and seats, and what the plan unlocks. Billing & Subscription
• Models — The models catalog, where each model's token costs are shown in Opal credits alongside its specifications and capabilities. Models
• Marketplace — How organizations list resources for others to use and adopt resources built elsewhere, with buyers charged in credits. Marketplace
• Listings — How a listing is priced against its resource type's usage-based pricing unit, or published free of charge. Listings
• Payouts — How a selling organization is paid for its Marketplace sales, in US dollars rather than credits. Payouts
• Access & Permissions — The full access model behind plans, role permissions, and per-resource permissions. Access & Permissions
• Glossary — Short definitions of the credit and billing terms used on this page. Glossary