Docs / Getting started / Credits & plans

Credits & plans

Every AI action in Pixploder is paid for with credits — the single currency for generating a scene, extending a canvas, detecting objects, and rebuilding a background. By default the AI runs on Pixploder's key and every call is metered, so a credit is worth the same thing on every plan. The tools that never call the AI — hand-masking, color-keying, contact shadows, healing, and every export — are always free. This page is the whole money story in one place; each pipeline step also carries its own Costs callout for the actions on that screen.

Costs. Only AI actions spend credits, and each button prints its price before you click — Find Objects (1 cr), Extend canvas · 26 credits. The credit chip in the header always shows your balance, and a failed AI call is refunded automatically. Everything else in the editor costs nothing.

Plans at a glance

Plan	Price	Monthly AI credits	What you get
Free	$0	0 — pay-as-you-go	Masking & color-key tools, PSD import, cloud-saved projects (14-day retention), buy credit packs to run AI
Pro	$9.90 / mo	400 (~15–80 images by model)	Permanent cloud-saved projects, AI segmentation, generation & masking, 7-day free trial
Studio	$29.90 / mo	1,500 (~55–300 images by model)	Everything in Pro, ~25% more credits per dollar

Free is pay-as-you-go: it includes the masking, color-key, and PSD-import tools and gives you 0 monthly credits, so you run the AI only by buying a credit pack. Pro and Studio each include a monthly allowance that lands every billing period, and Studio is the better rate — about 25% more credits per dollar — for heavy AI use.

The landing page's Simple pricing cards are a preview: their buttons (Start free, Start free trial, Get Studio) just open the app. You actually subscribe inside the in-app Plans & credits modal, where only Pro and Studio are offered as subscriptions — Free is simply the no-subscription state.

The Plans & credits modal, with the Pro and Studio cards above the Credit top-ups section.

Careful. Monthly allowance credits reset each billing period and do not roll over — whatever you haven't spent by renewal is gone. Bought pack credits are separate and last much longer (see below).

Free projects are also on a clock: a saved project is deleted 14 days after your first one unless you subscribe, and a rose banner (Your saved projects will be deleted on <date>. Resubscribe to keep them, or export them now.) counts down as the date nears. See Projects & autosave.

Credit packs (one-time top-ups)

Top-up	Price	Good for
`200 credits`	`$6.90`	~7–40 images by model
`600 credits`	`$18.90`	~23–120 images by model

Credit packs are one-time purchases that stack on top of any monthly allowance, listed under Credit top-ups in the Plans & credits modal. They are the only way a Free account runs the AI. Pack credits expire 6 months after your most recent top-up — buying another pack re-dates the whole bought balance, resetting that 6-month clock for all of it.

When you spend, Pixploder draws down your monthly allowance first and only then dips into pack credits, so a pack behaves as a reserve that outlasts the monthly reset.

Tip. Because packs are spent only after your allowance runs out, buying one mid-month effectively extends that month without wasting any allowance you already paid for.

Your balance: the credit chip

When you are signed in, the top-right account cluster always shows your live balance. On a wide screen it reads as your plan name and <n> credits under your email; on a phone it collapses to a compact chip showing just the number, with your email and plan in the tooltip. Beside it sits the primary billing button — Upgrade on Free (it reads Buy credits / Upgrade on the projects screen), Plans & Credits on any paid plan — which opens the Plans & credits modal from any screen. The same cluster holds Sign out and a permanent delete-account button.

The header account cluster: plan, live credit balance, and the billing button.

Your displayed balance is your remaining monthly allowance plus any pack credits, computed on the server; the chip refreshes after every metered AI call.

Careful. Deleting your account removes your projects, saved images, and remaining credits, and cannot be undone. It does not cancel a paid subscription — cancel billing first (see below), then delete. Both confirmations spell this out before anything happens.

What spends credits, and what's free

Only AI actions spend credits, and each shows its cost on the button:

Scene analysis — Find Objects (1 cr), then Find More Objects (1 cr) on later runs — costs 1 credit.
Precision segmentation costs 1 credit per object or concept you segment, up to 24 at once.
Image generation is the expensive bucket: every full-scene generate, canvas extend, background take, and sprite-sheet rebuild is priced per AI model and shown on the button, like Generate · 26 credits. The recommended default is 26 credits; budget options in the AI model picker cost less, and each option lists its own per-run price.

Everything else is free: uploading art and PSD import, drawing or editing masks by hand, the color-key and keyer tools, contact shadows, the Harmonize heal passes, repixelize and bake, the 2.5D diorama, and every export format.

Before any spend, a confirm dialog titled Use <n> credits? shows the cost and your current balance, with a Don't ask again this session checkbox and Cancel / Use <n> credits buttons.

The Use 1 credit? confirm dialog, with the Don't ask again this session checkbox.

Tip. Tick Don't ask again this session once and the per-action confirm stops for the rest of your visit — it returns after a reload. A failed generation is always refunded, so a failure never costs you; the notice says your credits were refunded.

When you run out

There is no persistent low-balance warning — the guard fires the moment you trigger an AI action that you cannot afford, in a small Heads up dialog. Which message you see depends on why:

Signed out: Sign in to use AI features.
On a paused plan (no AI): Your plan doesn't include AI generations. Upgrade to Pro.
Out of credits: This needs <n> credits but you have <m>. Upgrade your plan or buy a credit pack.

The upgrade-related notices carry a See plans button that opens the Plans & credits modal; Got it dismisses. Because Free grants 0 monthly credits, a brand-new Free account meets the out-of-credits notice on its very first AI action until it buys a pack or starts the trial.

The Heads up notice when an AI action needs more credits than you have, with a See plans shortcut.

Note. The dialog is a courtesy — the server enforces credits independently and refuses any overspend, so nothing you do in the browser can run the AI for free.

The 7-day Pro trial

Pro starts with a 7-day free trial. Signed-in Free users who haven't dismissed it see a one-time onboarding modal, Try Pixploder Pro free for 7 days, that unlocks the full AI with a card on file and no charge until day 7. Start free trial begins it through secure checkout; Continue with Free (masking tools only) declines and won't ask again.

During the trial your plan shows as a 100-credit trial tier that becomes full Pro on the first real payment. Inside the Plans & credits modal a banner shows the end date (Free trial ends <date>. Cancel before then and you won't be charged.) with a Cancel trial action, and the Pro card reads Trial → Pro to mark it as your track. The other plans stay locked (Available after your trial) until it converts.

Careful. If you do not cancel before day 7, the trial converts to a paid Pro subscription automatically. Cancel any time before then from the trial banner and you pay nothing.

Managing your plan: upgrade, downgrade, pause, cancel

All plan changes happen in the Plans & credits modal, and for existing subscribers the plan buttons modify the same subscription rather than starting a new one:

Upgrades apply immediately and are prorated — the card reads Upgrade to Studio with the caption Applies immediately (prorated).
Downgrades are scheduled for the end of the current period (Downgrade to Pro, Takes effect at period end) and surface as an amber banner: Scheduled: switch to <plan> on <date>. You keep <plan> and its credits until then. A Keep <PLAN> button cancels the scheduled change.
Pause (Pause instead — $1.90/mo: keep your projects, no AI; starts at your next renewal) parks your account from the next renewal: your projects stay, but AI is off until you Resume on Pro (or Resume on Studio).
Cancel via Manage or cancel your subscription →, which opens the external billing portal in a new tab.

Cancelling keeps your access until the end of the period you already paid for; after that you drop to Free. The current tier is marked Current plan, and a pending target reads Scheduled ✓.

Tip. A scheduled downgrade or pause is reversible — click Keep <PLAN> in the amber banner any time before it takes effect and you stay put, credits and all.