---
id: KB-CD-005
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/credits-and-billing/what-credits-are
idioma: en
categoria: creditos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: basico
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CD-002, KB-CD-004, KB-CD-015]
citadoPor: [KB-CD-008, KB-PS-009, KB-CD-009, KB-CD-011]
---

# What credits are

_What they are for, who pays, and why not everything consumes them._

**Responde a:** what are code contract credits · how does the balance work · do i pay per signature · who pays for credits

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.

**En corto**

- Only things going outward, or using an external service, consume.
- Viewing, searching, organising and inviting your team is free.
- The third party who signs or delivers is never charged anything.

## 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.

> [!NOTE]
> 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.

## Ejemplos

**A company fears uploading its whole archive will be expensive. Rightly so: every upload consumes.**

- Uploads only what is current, not twelve years of archive
- Disables reading on types that yield no useful data

→ Uploads what will genuinely be consulted and stops paying to archive what nobody will open.

**Balance is confused with licence.**

- Checks what each one covers

→ Forecasting covers both concepts.

**Balance is bought when what was missing was licence.**

- Reviews what is actually blocking

→ The real problem gets solved.

**Nobody knows which activities consume balance.**

- Checks the breakdown by activity

→ The team works knowingly.

**Balance is left over one month and short the next.**

- Estimates the year with peak months separately

→ The purchase is sized better.

**Planning happens without allowing for growth.**

- Adds the growth assumption to the estimate

→ The forecast holds for the year.