Credit system explained
Chief measures usage through credits, which power all AI actions, including asking questions, processing files, generating analyses, and creating reports.
Written By Patrick Intervalo
Last updated 6 months ago
🚀 Pro-tip: Learn how to minimize the number of credits consumed in our FAQs below
How credits are consumed
Credits are used in various Chief processes like:
Submitting a prompt
Uploading a file
Generating a report/artifact
ℹ️ The number of credits used depends on the complexity of your prompt and the amount of data required to answer your question. Most prompts will use between 50 and 500 credits. More complex prompts may use 1,000 to 2,000 credits or more.
How credits refill
ℹ️ You must be a registered user for credits to refill to your account.
When you first sign up, you are automatically placed in the Explorer plan and receive
10,000credits.After that, daily credits refill at 12:00 AM UTC — but only once you’ve begun using your daily credits.
Once the daily cycle begins, credits continue refilling every day automatically.
You regain up to +300 credits per day, but never above your plan’s credit cap.
Example: If you’re on the Explorer plan (cap: 10,000) and have 9,800 credits left, you’ll only refill +200 credits to reach the cap.
Credit allocations for each plan
Types of credits
Credits can come from different sources within Chief. Each type behaves the same when used but may have different expiration rules depending on your plan.
Credit sources:
Daily credits — Automatically refilled each day (+300/day).
Plan credits — Included in your active subscription (e.g., 10,000 for Explorer, 20,000 for Go Pro).
Purchased credits — Bought on top of your plan for extra usage capacity.
Promotional credits — Occasionally granted during special offers or events.
Manual adjustments — Added by Chief Support in specific cases.
Credit consumption order:
Daily → Plan → Promotional → Initial sign-up → Purchased → Manual
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does "consumption-based pricing" mean in simple terms?
What does "consumption-based pricing" mean in simple terms?
Instead of paying a fixed monthly fee regardless of how much you use Chief, you pay based on how much work the AI actually does for you. Think of it like a utility bill - you pay more when you use more electricity, and less when you use less.
How do credits relate to the complexity of my requests?
How do credits relate to the complexity of my requests?
Credits are consumed based on how much computational work Chief needs to do to complete your task. Simple questions use fewer credits, while complex analysis, large document processing, or multi-step workflows use more credits.
Why can't you just charge the same amount for every task?
Why can't you just charge the same amount for every task?
Asking Chief to summarize a short paragraph on one document requires much less computational power than having it analyze multiple large documents and create a detailed report. Flat pricing would mean simple tasks are overpriced while complex tasks are underpriced.
How can I optimize the number of credits my prompts use?
How can I optimize the number of credits my prompts use?
If you’d like to minimize the number of credits used, you can:
Start new chats as often as possible: This reduces the amount of context (or “memory”) we need to carry between answers. However, this also means that Chief won’t be able to build on your past questions because the memory will reset between chats.
Turn “Extended Thinking” to the
Offsetting. This will shorten your answers, and Chief won’t do as much thinking to get you an answer. However, this also means Chief won’t do as much deep research through your data to get you the best possible answer. Learn more at Configuring response thinking levels
Still need help? Ask the team