# Credits

Raven is prepaid. There's no subscription: research draws on your account's credit, in US dollars, and stops when it runs out.

## Free credit

- **Welcome credit:** $5 when you sign up, with no card. Once per person. It expires after 90 days.
- **Monthly credit:** $5 at the start of each month once a card is on file. It doesn't roll over.

Spending uses monthly credit first, then welcome credit, then paid credit.

## What costs credit

Agents spend credit as they work:
- the supervisor planning and reviewing;
- researchers searching and reading the web;
- the verifier checking each candidate.

Each run's cost is model usage plus web searches. `GET /v1/teams/{id}/runs` shows what each run cost.

| | |
|---|---|
| Planning a team | typically $0.50–$2 |
| Verified lead | from about $0.08 when the people you want publish their email widely, more when few do |

Spending stays inside limits you set:
- **Daily budget per team** (default $5). Research is spread across the day, and resumes at midnight in the account's time zone.
- **Spend limit per team** (optional). The team pauses when it reaches it, and resumes as soon as you raise it.
- **Monthly usage limit for the account** (optional).

Only you can raise a budget or a target. The agents never do it on their own.

While a run is working, part of your balance is held for it. The hold is settled to the run's real cost when the run ends. `GET /v1/account` shows held credit separately.

## Running out

When the balance can't pay for the next run:
- the team pauses with status `out_of_credits`;
- calls that would spend return `402 INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS` with a `top_up_url`;
- adding credit resumes paused teams by themselves, within a minute.

Leads you already have stay yours. Each person counts once per account, so you never pay twice for the same lead.