# AI Credits Explained — What Counts, What's Free > How Reachlee AI credits work: one credit per AI reply sent to a DM or comment, skips and failed sends free, 1,000 credits on Growth and 2,500 on Business, and what happens at the cap. Dated September 2026. Guide # AI credits explained what counts, what's free One credit is one AI reply that actually reached a person. Everything the AI decides not to send is free. Growth includes 1,000 credits a month at $14/mo (₹799 in India); Business includes 2,500\. Here is exactly what burns a credit, what does not, and what happens when you hit the cap. Updated September 2026 · Human-verified [Start free ](/app/?src=seo&page=guide%2Fai-credits-explained)[See pricing](/#pricing) Meta-compliant · $14/mo (₹799 India) · cancel anytime 1One credit = one AI-generated reply sent, whether it is a DM reply or a public comment reply. That is the whole rule. 2Free: every message the AI reads and skips (greetings, friend chat, emoji-only, spam), every failed send, and every keyword automation — those never touch credits. 3Growth ($14/mo, ₹799 in India) includes 1,000 credits a month; Business ($29/mo, ₹1,499 in India) includes 2,500\. At the cap the AI pauses until the next cycle while your keyword automations keep running. No overage billing. ## What an AI credit is In Reachlee, an AI credit is consumed only when the AI sends a reply — one credit for an AI reply to a DM, one for an AI reply to a comment. Classification that ends in a skip costs nothing, and a send that fails is not charged. Growth includes 1,000 AI credits a month and Business includes 2,500; when they run out the AI pauses while every keyword automation continues unaffected. ## Why credits are metered on sends, not reads The AI reads far more than it writes. Every inbound DM on an account with AI Replies on passes through a classifier that decides whether the message deserves an answer at all. If we charged per read, you would pay for the AI to ignore 'hey' and 'lol'. We charge only for the work you would otherwise have done yourself: the reply that went out. * A skip is a decision, not a product. Greetings, friend chat, emoji-only comments, tag-a-friend comments, spam, and negative comments are classified and left alone. None of that appears on your meter. * A failed send is our problem, not yours. If Meta rejects a message or the send path errors, no credit is consumed and the event is logged so you can see it. * A keyword automation is not AI. Comment-to-DM flows, story-reply automations, and keyword replies run on every plan without touching credits. When a keyword automation and the AI both match the same message, the automation wins and no credit is spent. * A comment funnel is one credit, not two. When a comment shows buy or link intent, the AI posts a short public breadcrumb and sends the private DM carrying the link through the same pipeline. That counts as one reply. ## What burns a credit and what doesn't | Event | Credits | Why | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | AI replies to an inbound DM | 1 | A reply was generated from your knowledge and delivered | | AI replies publicly to a substantive comment | 1 | A reply under 150 characters went out on your post | | AI comment reply plus the private DM it triggers | 1 | One funnel, one credit — the breadcrumb and the DM are the same reply | | AI reads a DM and skips it (greeting, friend chat, spam) | 0 | Classification is free; only sends are metered | | AI reads a comment and skips it (emoji-only, tag-a-friend, negative) | 0 | Same rule | | A send fails at Meta's end | 0 | Nothing reached the person, so nothing is charged | | A keyword automation fires | 0 | Not AI; runs on every plan | | The AI stays out because you replied in the last 48 hours | 0 | The human-takeover window is a skip | | A muted thread or a globally paused AI | 0 | No reply, no credit | Credits reset at the start of each billing cycle. Unused credits do not roll over. There is no overage billing. How it works ## How to read your usage 01 ### Open Reachlee AI The overview shows a meter — for example, 412 / 1,000 this month — with the date the count resets. Growth accounts see 1,000; Business accounts see 2,500. 02 ### Check the Activity feed Every AI reply is listed with the DM or comment it answered, the label the classifier gave it, the goal (if any) it was steering toward, and a link to the thread. This is the receipt behind each credit. 03 ### Watch the skip breakdown The overview also shows what the AI chose not to answer — how many greetings, friend chats, spam messages, and low-value comments it passed on. Those are the credits you did not spend. 04 ### Act on the notice at the cap When credits hit zero, the AI pauses and a notice line appears in the app. Keyword automations, comment-to-DM flows, and your inbox keep working. The AI resumes automatically when the cycle resets, or immediately if you upgrade to Business. Sizing ## Is 1,000 credits enough? A credit is a real reply to a real person, so the number to compare it with is how many substantive DMs and comment questions you get a month — not your follower count. 01 ### What 1,000 replies covers Roughly 33 AI replies a day. For most creators and small businesses, the substantive questions — price, availability, shipping, cohort dates, how to book — sit well inside that, because greetings, reactions, and spam never touch the count. 02 ### Why follower count is the wrong yardstick Contact-metered tools bill you for everyone who ever messaged. Credits bill you only for answers the AI wrote. An account with 50,000 followers and 400 real questions a month uses 400 credits. 03 ### When to move to Business Business ($29/mo, ₹1,499 in India) includes 2,500 credits, 10 Instagram accounts, and 5 team seats. If you run several accounts or an agency, credits are shared across the workspace and the higher cap plus seats is the point of the tier. 04 ### What the cap protects you from A post that takes off cannot produce a surprise bill. The AI answers until the credits run out, then pauses. Your keyword automations — comment-to-DM, story replies — keep firing without limit because they are not AI. 05 ### Goals do not cost extra Attaching a share-link, capture-lead, or grow-followers goal changes what the AI says, not what it costs. The reply is still one credit, and the goal's success is measured by our instrumentation: a click on our short link, an email or phone captured, or a follow within 7 days. 06 ### Language matching does not cost extra Replies in Hindi, Hinglish, regional languages, or any of 20+ languages are one credit each, the same as English. Pricing ## AI credits by plan Growth is $14/mo (₹799 in India): 1,000 AI credits, AI Replies, AI Comments, AI Goals, 3 Instagram accounts. Business is $29/mo (₹1,499 in India): 2,500 credits, 10 accounts, 5 team seats. Free ($0) and Pro ($9) include keyword automations but no AI. One credit per AI reply sent; skips and failed sends are free. [Start free ](/app/?src=seo&page=guide%2Fai-credits-explained) FAQ ## AI credits — FAQ How much does one AI credit cost? Credits are not sold separately. Growth is $14/mo (₹799 in India) with 1,000 credits included, and Business is $29/mo (₹1,499 in India) with 2,500 included. There is no overage billing and no top-up pack; when credits run out the AI pauses until the next cycle. Does the AI reading a message cost a credit? No. Only a reply that is actually sent costs a credit. The classifier can read a thousand greetings and spam DMs in a month and your meter stays at zero. Do keyword automations use AI credits? No. Comment-to-DM, story-reply, and keyword DM automations are not AI and run without credits on every plan. When a keyword automation and the AI both match the same message, the automation wins and no credit is spent, so you never get two replies to one message. What happens when I hit the credit cap? The AI pauses. You see a notice line in the app and the meter reads full. Keyword automations, your inbox, and every other feature keep working. The AI resumes when your billing cycle resets, or immediately if you upgrade from Growth to Business. Will the AI burn credits making things up? It answers only from the knowledge you added and never invents prices or links; links come only from your allowed list. When it is unsure it says the creator will get back to you, and when a message does not merit a reply it stays silent — a skip that costs nothing. Every sent reply appears in the Activity feed so you can audit what a credit bought. Is AI auto reply on Instagram allowed? Yes, through the official Instagram API and inside Meta's rules: the AI only answers people who messaged you, inside the 24-hour messaging window, and never sends first-contact DMs. It also stays out of any thread for 48 hours after you reply yourself. [Instagram's rules for AI replies](/guides/is-ai-auto-reply-allowed-on-instagram/) Can the AI send messages to people who never DMed me, and would that cost credits? It cannot. Meta permits replies to inbound messages inside the 24-hour window only. Reachlee's AI answers inbound DMs and public comments on your posts, nothing else, so there is no way for it to spend credits on outreach. Where can I see how many credits I have used? In the Reachlee AI overview: a meter with used / included and the reset date, plus a 7-day and 30-day count of DM and comment replies and a skip breakdown. Every individual reply is listed in the Activity feed with the message it answered. 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