Credits and usage

AI in Sela runs on credits. Credits are how the AI Assist add-on is metered: you get a monthly allowance, and each AI action uses a small part of it. This page explains how credits are spent. Prices and blocks are on Plans and billing.

What a credit is#

A credit is a unit of AI usage. Longer conversations and replies that use more tools use more credits.

A normal support reply is a small fraction of a credit. Sela shows an estimate of how many replies your remaining credits cover, and personalizes it from your own recent usage once you have enough history. Long conversations, many tool lookups and image understanding raise the credits used per reply.

What uses credits#

Human replies and normal inbox use do not use credits.

Consumption order#

1. Monthly plan credits are used first.
2. Only when they reach zero, the AI wallet is used. Wallet usage is deducted per reply, and the AI usage card shows your balance and an estimate of replies remaining.
3. If both are empty, the AI stops answering.

Plan credits reset every month on your credit reset date, including on annual platform plans. Unused plan credits do not carry over. The wallet does not expire.

The wallet and top-ups#

The wallet is prepaid money for AI use beyond your monthly allowance.

• Top-ups are $5, $10 or $20, paid through Wayl.
• An organization admin makes them, and the AI Assist add-on must be active.
• A paid top-up is credited exactly once. If AI Assist ended before the payment finished, the money is still added but stays locked until AI is active again.

To top up, open Settings → Plan & usage (labelled "Plan and usage"), find the AI usage card, and choose a top-up amount.

To get more monthly credits instead, increase your AI credit blocks (100 credits each) in the plan configurator. Increases are prorated. Decreases take effect at your next renewal.

Monitoring usage#

Open Settings → Plan & usage. The AI usage card shows:

• plan credits used and remaining this month;
• wallet balance;
• an estimate of replies remaining, personalized once you have enough history;
• the reset date.

At 80 percent of monthly credits Sela flags a low balance. Check the card regularly instead of waiting for a notification.

What happens at zero#

When plan credits and wallet are both empty:

• The AI does not reply on any channel. Customers get nothing from the AI, so watch for waiting conversations.
• Your team can still reply manually. The inbox keeps working.
• Knowledge indexing, Smart notes, imports and Copilot fail with a message that credits are exhausted. Failed jobs can be retried after a top-up.
• Customers who sent voice notes or images get no AI understanding of them.

The AI resumes on the next customer message once credits or wallet are available. Messages that arrived while it was off are not answered retroactively, so review those in the inbox.

Reducing usage#

• Fix the cause of long turns. Put answers in the knowledge base so the AI finds them in one search, not several.
• Keep the identity short. Very long extra guidance is sent with every turn.
• Trim tools you do not need. Every enabled tool is described to the AI on each turn. See Tools and actions.
• Avoid unnecessary re-indexing. Do not upload the same document repeatedly, and split huge scans only when needed.
• Keep quality review sampling low. Each review uses credits. Use a small percentage and a daily cap.
• Take busy hours to humans if you prefer. Use Pause assistant on conversations that need a person from the start.
• Right-size your blocks. Compare the monthly estimate with your real usage and adjust.

Common questions#

Why did my credits drop after a KB upload? Indexing uses credits, and PDFs and scans cost more than text files.

Why is one reply charged twice? Each reply includes writing it and checking it against your knowledge, so a reply can show more than one usage entry.

Do credits roll over? Plan credits do not. Wallet money does not expire.