Credits
Understand how credits work for email discovery and AI features
Credits
Credits are Stormy's usage-based currency. They power the features that require external data lookups or AI compute — things like finding a creator's email address, running an AI-powered search, or letting the AI agent take autonomous actions on your behalf.
Credits exist so that base features (lists, inbox, sequences, post tracking) remain unlimited on your plan, while resource-intensive operations are metered fairly based on actual usage.
Credits dashboard showing current balance, monthly allocation, usage breakdown chart, and purchase button
How credits work
Every workspace has a credit balance. This balance has two components:
- Monthly allocation — credits included with your subscription plan, refreshed on each billing cycle
- Purchased credits — additional credits you buy separately, which do not expire
When you perform an action that costs credits, the system draws from your monthly allocation first. Once that is depleted, it draws from your purchased credit balance.
Credits are pooled at the workspace level. Every team member's actions draw from the same balance. If your team of five all run email discovery on the same day, all those lookups come from the workspace's shared pool.
What uses credits
Here is a breakdown of the actions that consume credits and their approximate costs:
Email discovery
| Action | Credit cost |
|---|---|
| Email lookup (single creator) | 1 credit |
| Bulk email discovery (per creator) | 1 credit each |
| Email verification (re-verify existing) | 0.5 credits |
Email discovery is the most common use of credits. When you click Find Email on a creator's profile or run bulk email discovery on a list, Stormy searches across multiple data sources and verifies the email before returning it. Each successful lookup costs 1 credit. If no email is found, no credits are charged.
Run email discovery on targeted lists rather than your entire database. If you have 500 creators in a list but only plan to reach out to 100, select those 100 first and discover emails for just them. This avoids spending credits on contacts you may never use.
AI-powered search
| Action | Credit cost |
|---|---|
| Creator search query | 2 credits |
| Search with advanced filters | 2 credits |
| Search refinement (same session) | 1 credit |
Each search query in Creator Discovery uses credits because it involves AI processing to interpret your query and match it against creator data. Refining a search within the same session (adjusting filters, loading more results) costs less than starting a new search.
AI agent actions
| Action | Credit cost |
|---|---|
| Agent drafts an email response | 1 credit |
| Agent sends an email autonomously | 2 credits |
| Agent updates CRM data (status, notes) | 0.5 credits |
| Agent negotiation response | 2 credits |
| Agent creates an action item | 0.5 credits |
The AI agent uses credits whenever it performs an action on your behalf. Drafting a response for your review costs less than sending autonomously, because autonomous actions require additional AI reasoning to ensure quality.
Passive agent features — like categorizing incoming emails and displaying conversation summaries in the inbox — do not cost credits. Credits are only consumed when the agent takes an active step (writing, sending, updating data).
Other actions
| Action | Credit cost |
|---|---|
| Export list to CSV | 0 credits (free) |
| Generate Shopify discount code | 0 credits (free) |
| Post tracking monitoring | 0 credits (free) |
| Sequence sending (per email) | 0 credits (free) |
Sending emails through sequences, tracking posts, and exporting data are included in your plan and do not consume credits.
Checking your credit balance
You can check your credit balance in several places:
- Settings > Billing — shows your full credit dashboard with monthly allocation, purchased balance, and usage history
- Sidebar — your remaining credit count is displayed near the bottom of the sidebar for quick reference
- Before credit-consuming actions — when you are about to perform an action that costs credits (e.g., bulk email discovery), Stormy shows the estimated cost and your remaining balance
Credit balance indicator in the sidebar and the pre-action confirmation dialog showing estimated credit cost
Monthly credit allocation
Each subscription plan includes a monthly credit allocation:
| Plan | Monthly credits |
|---|---|
| Starter (Free) | 100 |
| Growth | 1,000 |
| Business | 5,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom |
Monthly credits refresh on your billing date. Unused monthly credits do not roll over — they reset to your plan's full allocation at the start of each cycle.
If you rely heavily on email discovery or AI search, monitor your credit usage mid-month. Running out of credits does not break anything — your lists, sequences, and inbox continue to work — but you will not be able to perform credit-consuming actions until you purchase more or your allocation refreshes.
Purchasing additional credits
If you need more credits than your plan includes, you can purchase additional credit packs at any time.
- Go to Settings > Billing > Credits
- Click Buy Credits
- Select a credit pack:
| Pack | Credits | Price | Per-credit cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 500 | $15 | $0.030 |
| Medium | 2,000 | $50 | $0.025 |
| Large | 5,000 | $100 | $0.020 |
| Bulk | 15,000 | $250 | $0.017 |
- Confirm the purchase — credits are added to your balance immediately
Credit purchase modal showing available packs with pricing and a purchase confirmation button
Purchased credits never expire. Unlike monthly allocation credits, any credits you buy separately stay in your balance indefinitely until used. If you know you will need a lot of credits over the next few months, buying a larger pack gives you a better per-credit rate.
Usage history
Stormy tracks every credit-consuming action so you can see exactly where your credits go.
Viewing usage history
Go to Settings > Billing > Credits > Usage History to see a detailed log:
- Date and time of each action
- Action type (email discovery, AI search, agent action, etc.)
- Team member who performed the action
- Credits consumed
- Running balance after the action
Usage analytics
The credits dashboard includes visual breakdowns:
- Usage by category — pie chart showing what percentage of credits went to email discovery vs. AI search vs. agent actions
- Usage over time — line chart showing daily credit consumption with a trend line
- Usage by team member — table showing which team members are consuming the most credits
Credit usage analytics showing category breakdown pie chart and daily usage line chart
If one team member is consuming a disproportionate share of credits, check whether they are running broad AI searches or bulk email discovery jobs. Often, narrowing search queries or targeting smaller creator lists can dramatically reduce credit usage.
Credit alerts
Stormy sends notifications when your credit balance reaches certain thresholds:
- 50% used — email notification to the workspace owner
- 80% used — email notification to all admins and owner
- 100% used — in-app banner for all team members, plus email to owner
You can customize these thresholds and notification preferences in Settings > Notifications.
Frequently asked questions
What happens when I run out of credits?
Features that do not require credits (lists, sequences, inbox, post tracking) continue to work normally. Features that require credits (email discovery, AI search, autonomous agent actions) will prompt you to purchase more credits or wait for your monthly refresh.
Do credits transfer between workspaces?
No. Each workspace has its own credit balance tied to its own subscription. Credits purchased in one workspace cannot be used in another.
Can I get a refund for unused purchased credits?
Purchased credits are non-refundable but they never expire, so they retain their value indefinitely. If you are canceling your workspace and have a large purchased credit balance, contact support to discuss options.
How do I know how many credits an action will cost before I do it?
Stormy shows a confirmation dialog before any credit-consuming action. The dialog displays the estimated credit cost, your current balance, and your balance after the action. You can cancel before proceeding.
Why do autonomous agent actions cost more than drafts?
When the agent drafts a response for your review, it performs one round of AI reasoning. When it sends autonomously, it performs additional validation — checking tone, verifying facts, ensuring the response aligns with your playbook — before sending. The extra compute is reflected in the higher credit cost.
What to read next
- Subscriptions — see how many monthly credits each plan includes
- Creator Discovery — learn how to run efficient searches that use fewer credits
- Email Discovery — best practices for finding creator emails
- AI Agent — configure the agent's autonomous actions and credit usage
Last updated: 2026-03-29