# Usage and credits

Understand your allowance, add credits, and recover from a usage limit.

Anara measures the AI work you use rather than a fixed number of messages or words. Open **Usage** in the sidebar or **Settings > Usage** to see your meter, available credits, and the next reset time.

## What uses your allowance [#what-uses-your-allowance]

Chat, AI editing, extraction in Views, and importing files use AI processing. Longer conversations, more source reading, heavier models, and Deep Search can use more than a short question. Reading saved files, organizing folders and tags, writing manually, and opening past answers do not require a new AI run.

Free has a daily allowance; paid plans have a weekly allowance. The app shows the reset information for your account. Included usage is per person. Purchased credits belong to the workspace and can cover members' usage after their included allowance is used.

## When you reach a limit [#when-you-reach-a-limit]

New AI requests and imports can be blocked while your saved work remains accessible. Read the notice: it tells you whether waiting for a reset will restore access or whether a credit balance needs attention. Do not assume that every block will clear at the next allowance reset.

You can wait when a reset will restore access, change your [plan](/guides/plans-and-billing), or add credits on a paid plan. If the meter and error disagree, refresh and contact support with the task and error message.

## Add credits on the web [#add-credits-on-the-web]

1. Open **Settings > Usage** and choose **Add credits**.
2. Select an amount or enter your own.
3. Review the credit quantity and checkout total.
4. Complete checkout to charge the payment method and add the credits.

Owners and admins can purchase credits. Members can use **Request credits** to send a request to the workspace's owners and admins. Free workspaces must upgrade before buying credits.

Web credit purchases range from $5 to $1,000 in whole-dollar increments. There are 100 credits per US dollar. Unused credits bought on the web expire 12 months after purchase. Credit packs bought through Apple in the iOS app do not expire. Your included allowance is used before purchased credits.

## Auto-refill [#auto-refill]

In the credit dialog, open **Auto-refill**. Set a balance threshold, refill amount, and monthly cap, then save. Review these values carefully because enabling auto-refill authorizes future charges when its conditions are met. You can change or disable it from Usage.

If a purchase does not appear, refresh and check the receipt before trying another purchase. For payment failures or unexpected charges, see [billing](/guides/plans-and-billing).