> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# How agent credits are used
> What spends an agent credit, how many your plan grants each month, and how to top up without being surprised by a schedule.
export const Path = ({steps = []}) =>
{steps.map((s, i) =>
{i > 0 ?
›
: null}
{s}
)}
;
export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
return
Available in
{list.map(e =>
{EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
)}
{plans ? Plan : null}
{plans ? {plans} : null}
{roles ? Who : null}
{roles ? {roles} : null}
{note ? {note} : null}
;
};
Agent credits are what your AI agents spend when they run. Your plan grants a fresh allowance every month, and you can buy refill packs on top. Building agents costs nothing — only running them does.
The **Agent credits** card at the top of the **Agent Builder** page shows your balance, a **Top up** button, and a **Recent activity** list of the last few grants, refills and runs.
## What spends a credit
Two nodes, and only two: **Agent** and **Classify**. Everything else on the canvas — **File search**, **Guardrails**, **MCP**, **If / else**, **While**, **User approval**, **Transform**, **Set state**, **End**, **Note** — costs nothing at all.
That makes the cost of a workflow easy to read off the canvas: count the **Agent** and **Classify** nodes a run will actually pass through. A branch the run does not take costs nothing.
## Your monthly allowance
Clinic & Hospital plans grant, per month:
| Plan | Monthly agent credits |
| --------- | --------------------- |
| Free | 50 |
| Starter | 1,000 |
| Essential | 2,500 |
| Team | 5,000 |
## The two rules that decide what gets spent
1. **Monthly plan credits are always spent first.** Refill packs are only touched once the month's allowance runs out.
2. **Refill packs never expire.** An unused pack carries over indefinitely, so buying ahead of a busy period is never wasted.
## A schedule multiplies everything
This is where a small workflow becomes a large bill. The same two-step agent costs wildly different amounts depending on what starts it:
| Trigger | Runs per month | Billable steps per run | Credit-consuming steps per month |
| ------------------------------------------- | -------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| **Manual / Preview**, run a few times a day | \~90 | 2 | \~180 |
| **Every day** | \~30 | 2 | \~60 |
| **Every hour** | \~730 | 2 | \~1,460 |
| **Every 15 minutes** | \~2,920 | 2 | \~5,840 |
An **Every 15 minutes** schedule on a two-step agent will exhaust a Team allowance on its own — before a second agent has run at all. A **Public UI** is the other multiplier: every visitor message is a run, which is why the abuse caps on [publishing an agent](/platform/ai/publishing-agents) matter.
Sensible habits:
* Use the slowest schedule that still meets the need. Most "overdue" work is fine on **Every day**.
* Do the filtering in free nodes. Let **If / else** decide whether the run is worth an **Agent** step, rather than having the **Agent** step decide there was nothing to do.
* Use **Classify** for sorting and a single **Agent** step for the writing, rather than several **Agent** steps in a row.
* Watch **Recent activity** on the **Agent credits** card for the first few days after deploying anything scheduled.
## Top up
Select **Top up** on the **Agent credits** card. The **Top up agent credits** dialog explains: "Refill packs never expire and are used after your monthly plan credits. You'll complete payment securely on the next screen." Choose a pack and you are taken to checkout.
Buying a refill pack charges your payment method immediately. Packs are not refundable once the credits land in your balance, so buy the size you will use — they never expire, but they also do not come back.
## When you run out
Runs stop. A scheduled agent simply does not fire, and a public UI stops answering, until either your monthly allowance renews or you top up. Nothing is deleted and nothing needs re-deploying — the agent resumes on its next trigger once there is a balance.
## Related
The plans-side view of credits across the platform.
A bigger monthly allowance, and higher publishing limits.
Which nodes are billable, and how triggers work.
Abuse caps on a public chat assistant.