Credits and billing
What credits are
What they are for, who pays, and why not everything consumes them.
Credits are the unit you pay usage in: each action the platform performs for you consumes one. They sit alongside the licence — the licence grants access, credits pay for what you do with it.
The rule, in one sentence
If the platform **does** something — send, create, upload, read, seal, generate — it consumes. If it only **shows** what is already inside, it does not.
| Action | Consumes? |
|---|---|
| Sending for signature, or a notice on any channel | Yes |
| Creating or duplicating a process | Yes |
| Uploading a document | Yes |
| Reading with AI, certifying or generating a report | Yes |
| Searching, filtering and downloading what is stored | No |
| A supplier delivering or signing | No |
Important
That the third party pays nothing is not a commercial detail: it is what makes them deliver. If signing cost something, half your suppliers would not do it.
Worth knowing
The balance belongs to the whole organisation, not to each person. And since cost follows the action rather than the recipient, a send to three hundred people consumes the same as one.
›Do they expire?
Not with time. But they cannot be spent if the licence lapses, so in practice they depend on keeping it current.
›What happens if they run out?
What was already sent continues; new things wait. Nobody outside notices.
›Can I see where they go?
Yes, in the breakdown on the credits screen.
A real case
The situation
A company fears uploading its whole archive will be expensive. Rightly so: every upload consumes.
What you do
- Uploads only what is current, not twelve years of archive
- Disables reading on types that yield no useful data
What you get
Uploads what will genuinely be consulted and stops paying to archive what nobody will open.
The situation
Balance is confused with licence.
What you do
- Checks what each one covers
What you get
Forecasting covers both concepts.
The situation
Balance is bought when what was missing was licence.
What you do
- Reviews what is actually blocking
What you get
The real problem gets solved.
The situation
Nobody knows which activities consume balance.
What you do
- Checks the breakdown by activity
What you get
The team works knowingly.
The situation
Balance is left over one month and short the next.
What you do
- Estimates the year with peak months separately
What you get
The purchase is sized better.
The situation
Planning happens without allowing for growth.
What you do
- Adds the growth assumption to the estimate
What you get
The forecast holds for the year.
This article answers
- what are code contract credits
- how does the balance work
- do i pay per signature
- who pays for credits