Platform

Billing, credits & plans

Project Ares runs on credits. Every model simply consumes credits — faster models consume more, lighter models less — and you can always see exactly where they went.

Credits

Credits are the only unit you'll ever deal with. You buy them in packs (they never expire), every request consumes some, and your balance is visible in the console, on your dashboard, and in the desktop app. Per-model rates are public at GET /pricing: cache reads bill at 10% of input, cache writes at 125% (1-hour caches at 200%), and the optional fast lane bills at 2× — billed only when a request actually runs fast.

The free trial

New accounts start with free trial credits, valid for 30 days — enough to genuinely try the platform, no card required. Trial credits are spent before anything else and expire on their own; when they're gone (used up or timed out), requests return 402 with a plain message: pick a plan or add credits to continue. Trial credits never mix with a paid balance.

Auto-reload keeps work from stopping mid-task: when your balance drops below a threshold you set, Project Ares tops it up automatically and emails you a receipt. Sensible minimums are enforced so the service never stalls between requests.

The two ways to pay

Subscriptions ($10 Starter · $30 Pro · $100 Max)

A flat monthly fee buys a month of usage, shown as a simple percentage used — no math, no meters in strange units. Subscriptions include fair-use windows (a rolling 5-hour and a weekly limit) so a runaway loop can't exhaust a whole month in an afternoon; they refill on their own and the console shows when. For organizations, subscription plans are priced per seat and the allowance pools across the team — a member who joins mid-month is charged a prorated seat fee for the days that remain.

How the money side works: subscribing mid-month charges a prorated fee for the rest of the month; the plan then renews in full on the 1st, charged to your default payment method. Upgrading credits the unused remainder of your current plan, so the overlap is never paid twice. Downgrading (or cancelling) waits until the period you've already paid for ends. If a renewal payment fails you get a 7-day grace window with daily retries and email warnings — after that the account simply moves to Pay as you go; your credits are untouched.

Pay as you go

No monthly fee, no fair-use windows. Buy credits first, spend them as you go. When the balance hits zero the service stops — unless auto-reload is on.

The two compose: on a subscription, usage consumes the plan first, then your credits. When both run out, requests return 402 instead of silently billing you more. No surprise overage — ever.

Spend limits

Any account can set a monthly hard cap in credits. When the cap is reached, requests fail with 402 until the period resets or an admin raises it. Recommended for org accounts with many members.

Organizations: who pays for what

Work in your personal context and your own plan or credits are consumed. Work in an organization context and the org's account pays — managed by its owners, who control the plan, payment methods, spend limits, and where invoices and receipts are emailed. Your dashboard shows the split.

Invoices & receipts

When a billing period closes, Project Ares generates an invoice per account — subscription fee and usage as separate lines — and emails it to the billing address if notifications are on. Credit purchases and auto-reloads get receipts. Everything also lives under Billing → Invoices and the immutable ledger.

Payments: credit purchases go through Stripe Checkout — pay with card, Link (one-click), or a wallet. Card details never touch Project Ares; the method you pay with is saved securely by Stripe and powers auto-reload, and the ledger records the real payment reference. Deployments without Stripe keys run in a clearly-labeled sandbox mode instead.