# AI credits & usage

How AI credits work, what an AI action costs, and how to buy more. Credits come in one-time packs on any plan, never expire, and belong to each person.

## How credits work

Every AI action uses credits: a chat message, translating a submission, a summary of answers, or an AI Validation check. The more text and files AI reads, the more it uses. 100 credits are worth $1 of AI use, and a typical chat uses about 5. No plan includes credits, and every plan pays the same.

## Credit packs

| Pack | Credits | About |
| - | - | - |
| Starter | 490 | 98 chats |
| Pro | 1,990 | 398 chats |
| Max | 4,990 | 998 chats |

The Pro pack is a credit pack, separate from the Pro plan. Prices are in your currency, before tax.

## Buying credits

Click **Add credits** in the sidebar, pick a pack and pay. Your balance goes up as soon as the payment completes.

To protect against stolen cards, how much you can buy in 24 hours depends on your plan: one Max pack’s worth on Free, three on Pro, ten on Business. On Free and Pro, you wait an hour between packs. In its first 30 days, an account without a paid plan can buy up to $50 in all. For more, email [support](mailto:support@formstep.io).

## What an action costs

A quick question costs about 1 credit, a typical chat 5, and a long task with many steps 25. Translating a submission costs about 1, and an AI summary of answers about 2. An AI Validation check costs under 1 credit for a text answer, and about 1 for a photo or a one-page PDF, plus 0.4 for each further page.

Formstep runs Anthropic’s Claude models inside the EU. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs three times as much as Claude Haiku 4.5, the default (see [choosing a model](https://formstep.io/docs/ai/using-ai/#models)). Costs follow what the model providers charge, so they can change.

## Your balance

The sidebar and the AI chat show about how many chats you have left, and **Running low** at 100 credits or fewer. Without credits, AI stops and everything else keeps working.

An action needs a few more credits free than it usually costs, because Formstep sets aside the most it could cost and then charges what it used. If your balance is too low, the chat says so.

## Who pays

Credits belong to each person, not to the workspace, and each member buys their own. A form’s [AI Validations](https://formstep.io/docs/building-forms/ai-validation/) always use the workspace owner’s credits.

On Business, the owner can turn on **Share my AI credits with members** in Workspace Settings. Members’ AI use in that workspace then spends the owner’s credits, and stops when they run out until the owner adds more. Sharing ends if the owner leaves Business.

## Your own AI tool

When you use Formstep from your own AI tool, such as Claude or ChatGPT, it spends no Formstep credits. Your AI tool bills you. See [Connect an AI agent](https://formstep.io/docs/guides/ai-agents/connect/).

## Next steps

[Use AI chat](https://formstep.io/docs/ai/using-ai/) — Build, edit, translate and analyze with AI

[Plans & pricing](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/plans-pricing/) — What each plan is for