The Credit System Explained
Everything about Proompi's credits — monthly vs bonus, full cost table, how to earn and save credits.
Updated: April 7, 2025
Understanding Proompi’s Credit System
Proompi uses a credit-based pricing model where every AI operation consumes a specific number of credits based on computational cost. Image generation with fast, efficient models costs fewer credits than slow, high-quality models. Video generation costs scale with duration because longer videos require exponentially more computation.
This system gives you control over costs. You decide when to invest in premium quality (gpt-image-1.5 at 20 credits) versus when rapid iteration matters more (flux-schnell at 2 credits). You choose whether 10 seconds of Sora Pro video at 350 credits is worth it for a flagship campaign, or whether Wan 2.1 at 23 credits flat delivers sufficient quality for social media.
Think of credits as your creative budget allocation tool. Strategic credit usage maximizes output quality while controlling costs.
Two Types of Credits
Monthly Credits
Monthly credits are included with your subscription plan and reset every billing cycle. On the SPARK plan, you get 350 credits on January 1st. Generate images throughout the month, and on February 1st you get another fresh 350 credits regardless of whether you used all of January’s credits.
Key characteristics:
- Included in plan: No additional purchase required
- Reset monthly: Unused credits don’t roll over — use them or lose them
- Plan-dependent amount: FREE gets 50/month, SPARK gets 350/month, ACCELERATOR gets 1,000/month, PRO gets 3,500/month
- Used second: When you generate content, Proompi uses bonus credits first (if you have any), then monthly credits
The “use it or lose it” nature of monthly credits encourages regular usage. If you have 100 monthly credits remaining on the last day of your billing cycle, generate some content rather than letting those credits expire unused.
Bonus Credits
Bonus credits are purchased separately as one-time packs and never expire. Buy 500 bonus credits today, and they remain in your account indefinitely until you use them. You can accumulate thousands of bonus credits by purchasing packs whenever convenient.
Key characteristics:
- Purchased separately: Not included in subscriptions, bought a la carte
- Never expire: Remain in account forever until consumed
- Used first: When generating content, bonus credits deplete before monthly credits
- Stackable: Purchase multiple packs and they accumulate
- Transferable (PRO plan): Transfer bonus credits between team members
The strategic advantage of bonus credits is bulk purchasing during budget availability, then consuming them gradually over time. Purchase a 2,000 credit pack during Q4 when you have budget surplus, then use those credits throughout Q1 when budgets are tighter.
Credit Usage Order
When you generate content, Proompi consumes credits in this priority:
- Bonus credits (if any available)
- Monthly credits (if bonus credits depleted)
- Generation fails if both credit types reach zero
This priority system protects your monthly credits. If you purchased bonus credits for a specific project, they get used first, preserving your monthly allocation for regular ongoing work.
Complete Cost Table
| Operation | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt Enhancement | ||
| Quick/Detailed/Creative mode | 2-3 | Same cost regardless of mode |
| Multi-variant (up to 3) | 2-3 | Same total cost for 1-3 variants |
| Image Generation - GPT | ||
| gpt-image-1-mini (Standard) | 10 | Fast, good quality |
| gpt-image-1 (Standard) | 15 | Photorealistic commercial |
| gpt-image-1.5 (Standard) | 20 | Maximum quality, print-ready |
| gpt-image-1-mini (HD) | 20 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| gpt-image-1 (HD) | 25 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| gpt-image-1.5 (HD) | 30 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| Image Generation - FLUX | ||
| flux-schnell | 2 | Fastest, testing/iteration |
| flux-1.1-pro | 8 | Artistic, textured |
| flux-1.1-pro (HD) | 18 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| Image Generation - Ideogram | ||
| ideogram-2 | 12 | Text in images, logos |
| ideogram-2-turbo | 5 | Fast text graphics |
| ideogram-2 (HD) | 22 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| ideogram-2-turbo (HD) | 15 | +10 credits for HD upgrade |
| Video Generation | ||
| Sora 2 | 12/sec | Multiply by duration (e.g., 5sec = 60cr) |
| Sora Pro | 35/sec | Premium cinematic quality |
| Luma Ray 2 | 23 flat | Up to 5 seconds |
| Wan 2.1 480p | 23 flat | Up to 6 seconds, best value |
| Kling v1.6 Pro | 12/sec | Smooth transitions |
| Runway Gen3a | 6/sec | Budget testing |
| Audio Generation | ||
| Music (ElevenLabs) | 25 | Any duration up to 10 minutes |
| Text Generation | ||
| Claude Haiku | ~1-2 | Varies by length, typically 1-2cr |
| GPT-4o-mini | ~1-3 | Varies by length, typically 1-3cr |
Model Waterfall System (FREE Plan Only)
Free plan users have access to model waterfall, a fallback system that ensures you always get results even when your preferred model is unavailable or too expensive given your remaining credit balance.
How it works: You request gpt-image-1 (15 credits), but the system detects you only have 8 credits remaining. Instead of failing, it automatically falls back to flux-1.1-pro (8 credits), which fits your budget. You get a generation result, just not with your first-choice model.
Waterfall order (from premium to budget):
- gpt-image-1.5 (20cr) → gpt-image-1 (15cr) → gpt-image-1-mini (10cr) → flux-1.1-pro (8cr) → flux-schnell (2cr)
On paid plans: Model waterfall is disabled. When you select gpt-image-1, you get gpt-image-1 or an error if insufficient credits. This ensures you control exactly which model executes since you’re paying for specific quality levels.
Earning Free Credits
Referral Program
Every user gets a unique referral code. Share it with colleagues, clients, or friends. When someone signs up using your code and subscribes to any paid plan:
- You receive: 50 bonus credits
- They receive: 50 bonus credits
- No limit: Refer 20 people, earn 1,000 bonus credits
Referral credits are bonus credits (never expire), not monthly credits. They stack with purchased bonus packs and your monthly allocation.
Pro tip: If you run an agency or consultancy, include your Proompi referral code in client onboarding materials. When clients sign up for their own accounts, you both get 50 credits. Over time, this compounds into significant credit earnings.
Promotional Campaigns
Proompi occasionally runs promotional credit grants tied to specific events:
- Launch campaigns: New feature launches sometimes include free credit bonuses for testing
- Seasonal promotions: Holiday campaigns, Black Friday credit packs with bonus credits
- Community contributions: High-quality workflow templates published to community library earn credit rewards
- Educational content: Users who create exceptional tutorial content may receive credit grants
Follow Proompi’s blog and email newsletters for promotional announcements.
Buying Bonus Credit Packs
Bonus credit packs are available for purchase separately from your subscription:
Standard packs:
- 500 credits: ~€20 (best for testing)
- 2,000 credits: ~€70 (best value per credit)
- 5,000 credits: ~€160 (agency/team pack)
- 10,000 credits: ~€300 (enterprise pack)
Larger packs offer better per-credit pricing. The 10,000 credit pack costs about 3 cents per credit, while the 500 pack costs about 4 cents per credit.
When to buy bonus packs:
- Project-based work: Purchase credits when you land a client project requiring significant content generation
- Seasonal campaigns: Buy extra credits before high-volume periods (holiday campaigns, product launches)
- Budget timing: Purchase at end of fiscal quarters when you have budget surplus
- Team pooling: On PRO plan, team members can pool funds to purchase shared bonus credit packs
Payment methods: Credit cards, PayPal, bank transfer (for large packs), or invoice billing for enterprise customers.
Credit Saving Strategies
Strategy 1: Test Cheap, Finalize Expensive
Never start with premium models. Test concepts with flux-schnell (2 credits), validate that prompts and composition work, then regenerate final assets with gpt-image-1.5 (20 credits). This workflow reduces wasted credits from failed generations.
Typical savings: Testing 5 concepts with schnell costs 10 credits total. Selecting 2 winners and regenerating with gpt-image-1.5 costs 40 credits. Total: 50 credits for 2 final assets. Direct generation with gpt-image-1.5 would cost 100 credits (5 × 20) with 3 wasted expensive generations.
Strategy 2: Skip HD for Social Media
HD mode adds 10 credits per generation but only matters for large-format viewing or print. Social media platforms compress images heavily, making HD imperceptible.
Rule of thumb: Generate HD for print materials, billboards, hero website sections, portfolio pieces. Skip HD for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, blog thumbnails, internal presentations.
Savings: If you generate 50 social media images per month, skipping HD saves 500 credits monthly.
Strategy 3: Enhance Once, Reuse Forever
Prompt enhancement costs 2-3 credits but produces reusable enhanced prompts. Save enhanced prompts to your library and reuse them without paying enhancement costs again.
Workflow: Enhance “product photography” prompt once (3 credits), save the detailed result, generate 20 product photos using that enhanced prompt (no additional enhancement costs). Total: 3 credits for enhancement + 300 credits for 20 gpt-image-1 generations = 303 credits. Enhancing each time would cost 60 enhancement credits + 300 generation credits = 360 credits.
Savings: 57 credits per batch, or ~16% cost reduction.
Strategy 4: Batch Video Generation Strategically
Video costs scale with duration. Generate 3-second clips instead of 10-second clips and chain them together in editing.
Math: One 10-second Sora 2 clip costs 120 credits. Three 3-second clips cost 108 credits total (3 × 9 × 12cr/sec) and provide more editing flexibility. Even factoring in occasional failed generations, shorter clips are more cost-effective.
Strategy 5: Use Workflows to Prevent Manual Repetition
Building workflows requires upfront time investment but eliminates repetitive manual work that wastes credits through inconsistency and mistakes.
Example: Manually generating 20 product photos with inconsistent prompts might result in 30 total generations (20 successful + 10 redos due to inconsistency) costing 450 credits. A workflow with locked parameters generates all 20 successfully on first attempt, costing 300 credits.
Savings: 150 credits per batch, plus time saved.
Strategy 6: Monday/Tuesday Credit Refills for Monthly Credit Management
If you’re on the last day of your billing cycle with 200 unused monthly credits, batch-generate content to use them before they reset. Schedule time every billing cycle end to consume remaining monthly credits.
Batch generation ideas: Social media content calendar for next month, stock photos for content library, test new prompting techniques, generate variations of existing successful content for A/B testing.
Credit Monitoring and Alerts
Your Proompi dashboard shows real-time credit balance broken down by type:
- Bonus credits: Current bonus credit balance
- Monthly credits: Remaining monthly credits and days until reset
- Total available: Sum of both credit types
- This month’s usage: How many credits you’ve consumed this billing cycle
Set up alerts (in account settings):
- Low balance warning: Notification when total credits drop below threshold (e.g., 50 credits)
- Monthly credit expiration reminder: Alert 3 days before billing cycle ends if you have unused monthly credits
- High usage anomaly: Alert if credit consumption spikes unusually (catches accidental batch generation mistakes)
Plan Comparison for Credit Allocation
FREE (50 monthly credits)
Enough for: ~3 gpt-image-1 generations or ~25 flux-schnell tests or ~2 prompt enhancements + 2 gpt-image-1 generations. Best for exploring Proompi before committing.
SPARK (350 monthly credits)
Enough for: ~23 gpt-image-1 generations or ~40 enhanced + generated gpt-image-1 images (with enhancement) or ~175 flux-schnell test iterations. Best for freelancers and small businesses with moderate content needs (10-20 assets per month).
ACCELERATOR (1,000 monthly credits)
Enough for: ~66 gpt-image-1 generations or ~8 five-second Luma Ray 2 videos or ~500 flux-schnell tests or mixed usage (20 gpt-image-1 images + 2 videos + 10 music tracks + prompt enhancements). Best for marketing teams and agencies with regular content production.
PRO (3,500 monthly credits)
Enough for: ~230 gpt-image-1 generations or ~70 ideogram-2 text graphics or ~29 five-second Sora 2 videos or extensive mixed usage supporting entire content marketing operations. Best for production environments, agencies, and high-volume content creators.
Credit Efficiency by Use Case
E-commerce catalogs: Prioritize flux-schnell for testing, gpt-image-1 for finals, skip HD. Average 12 credits per final product photo (2cr test + 15cr final, skipping failed tests).
Social media marketing: Mix of flux-schnell and ideogram-2-turbo for daily content, monthly gpt-image-1.5 for hero posts. Average 400-600 credits per month for daily posting.
Video content creation: Test with Wan 2.1 (23cr flat), finalize with Sora 2. Average 60-80 credits per final 5-second clip including testing.
Comprehensive campaigns: Full campaigns with images, video, music, and copy can range from 500-2,000 credits depending on asset count and quality tier.
Understanding credit costs, usage patterns, and optimization strategies transforms Proompi from an expense into a strategic investment where every credit generates maximum value. Monitor your usage, implement cost-saving workflows, and allocate credits strategically across quality tiers based on each asset’s importance and visibility.