If you're wondering how credits work on Pickaxe, you're reading the right article. Credits are part of a simple system to keep track of your usage of AI models. In this article we will go over how the Pickaxe credit system works and answer all the most frequently asked questions about them.
Let's dive in.
1 credit = 1 prompt run.
Any time you generate an output, it costs one credit. Here's another way to think about it: every time you push the “submit” or “test” button to run your pickaxe, you use one credit. When you run out of credits, you can't generate more outputs.
If you use a tool on the pickaxe website, whoever presses the “submit” button, spends the credit. The owner of the Pickaxe is not debited. However, whenever you use an pickaxe embedded on another website, it costs the owner a credit.
Embedded pickaxes work differently. Embedded pickaxes always debit the pickaxe owner's account. If you embed a pickaxe on your website, every time someone presses “submit” on the embedded tool, it uses one of your credits.
This system allows people to use pickaxes embedded on your website without signing up for a Pickaxe account. It’s a way to sponsor free usage of your tool.
You can always control the amount of times an individual user can run an embedded pickaxe. To set a limit on each use, go to the “embed” page for a pickaxe and look for a slider labeled “prompt runs per user”.
All accounts get 25 credits when they sign up for an account. These credits replenish monthly.
Customers who sign up for a Gold subscription get 1000 credits and additionally have the ability to use their own API key, which allows for near unlimited usage directly from OpenAI. These 1000 credits replenish monthly.
To see your credits balance, simply go to your account page. You credits will be listed there.
You can buy additional credits on Pickaxe with ease. You can buy either 100 or 250 extra monthly credits. Extra credits can be purchased here.
Users can upgrade to a Gold subscription to get 1000 credits. You can upgrade to Gold here.
If you need more than 1000 credits, you can always purchase more credits. However, we highly recommend that customers use their own OpenAI API key. It’s cheaper than buying credits from us and provides near unlimited usage. This means instead of using credits, you will be billed per use by OpenAI directly. Pickaxe sell credits at a slight upcharge to cover our costs. By using your own API key, you can ensure uninterrupted, cheaper usage of AI models You can read more about getting your own OpenAI API key here.
Credits replenish every 30 days. Importantly, credits do not replenish in aggregate. Each individual credit replenishes 30 days from when it was used. Instead of waiting for all your credits replenish on the same date, credits replenish on a rolling basis. This makes for a smoother experience!
Every time you use an AI model, there is an associated cost from the model provider. Oftentimes this provider is OpenAI. When you use these models through a platform like Pickaxe, we are paying for these interactions.
Credits are a way for us to keep track of the uses. Giving credits is easier than billing customers per each use, which often differ depending on the size of the prompt. Credits are a simple, uniform system. 1 credit = 1 prompt run. That way you never have to worry about how much a specific generation costs. You always know it's 1 credit.
