> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.eversince.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Costs and balances

> Three balances pay for the work, each in its own unit. Editing and reading are free.

Prices and plan quotas are on [eversince.ai/pricing](https://eversince.ai/pricing).

| Balance          | Unit                         | Pays for                                                                                             |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| AI credits       | credits (1 credit is \$0.10) | generation, upscaling, background removal, reframing a picture, caption translation, social research |
| Cloud processing | minutes                      | everything else the servers do: transcribing, reading, describing, rendering, converting             |
| Storage          | bytes                        | what the workspace keeps in the cloud, counted against its owner                                     |

No balance pays for another.

## Free work

Editing a timeline or a canvas, reading what is already stored, searching, comments, boards, calendars and public links cost nothing. One canvas edit is the exception: a subject mask reads the photograph and uses cloud processing.

## Cloud processing

Cloud processing is work on Eversince's servers. It runs the same from any host, needs nothing open on the user's side, and a job carries on after the call ends, reported by `get_jobs` or a webhook. Through the desktop app, work the app can do on the user's computer runs there instead, at no charge. See [Desktop and cloud](/desktop-and-cloud).

## Reading and quoting

* `get_balance` returns all three balances and where more can be added.
* `estimate_cost` quotes any planned call in the same units, free, from the same rates the charge uses.
* Every tool description ends with what the tool costs: free, credits or cloud processing.
* A response that used cloud processing carries `cloud_processing`: what the call used and what is left. Cloud work is charged to the caller's own minutes without confirmation, whoever owns the workspace.

## Charged calls and retries

A call that charges, in credits or minutes, takes an `idempotency_key` generated for that operation. The same key on a retry returns the work already dispatched. A new attempt takes a new key. A charged call sent without a key is charged again when it is retried. On the REST API the key can also be sent in the `Idempotency-Key` header.

## Buying more

`get_checkout_link` returns a checkout URL for a plan, credits, minutes or storage. The user opens it and pays there. A purchase the account cannot make is refused with the reason. When a balance runs out, the error carries the link where the user can buy more.