🕰️ Est. Time: 8 minutes

🎯 Goal: Understand how AI is included in your plan, how top-up usage is billed, and how to set up a payment method for it

🔑 Requirements: Account Settings

The AI Usage page is where you switch AI on for your account, see how much of this month's allowance has been used, and set how much extra usage (if any) you're happy to pay for. Every paid plan includes a monthly AI allowance, so you can try the Streamtime Agent without being charged anything.

Click the ⚙️ Settings icon in the sidebar, choose Account Settings, then select AI Usage tab is on the right hand side. You'll need Billing access to see it.

You'll also see a short summary of this month's AI usage on the Billing page. Click More Information to jump to AI Usage.

AI is off until someone with Billing access turns it on. While it's off, nobody in your team can use the Streamtime Agent, and nothing is charged.

Turning AI on doesn't commit you to paying for anything. Your team uses the included allowance first, and you're only ever charged if you set a top-up limit. After this, you can enable it per user, and set usage caps per person.

Once that's done, nobody in your account can use AI until it's turned back on. Anything already used this month is still tracked.

AI usage is measured in credits. Each time someone asks the Streamtime Agent something, the credits it uses depend on how much work the request took. That's why a quick question uses fewer credits than a request that pulls lots of data, or a long back-and-forth conversation.

A few things worth knowing:

Every paid plan includes AI credits each month at no extra cost 🎉 You'll see them in the Included Monthly Allowance tile.

Your allowance is based on how much you pay for your monthly subscription, with a minimum so even those on our lowest subscription prices get something out of it.

Once the included allowance (and any granted credits) runs out, AI stops for the rest of the month unless you've set a top-up limit. Top-up lets your team keep using AI, and you pay only for what's used.

Your top-up limit starts at $0, so you're never charged for AI unless you choose to be.

You'll need:

If either is missing, the Top-Up Monthly Limit tile shows $0 and tells you what's needed next.

A higher limit applies straight away. You can lower this month's limit, but not below what's already been used this month. To stop any more top-up this month, set it to exactly what's been used.

The limit is the most you'll be charged for top-up in a month. It isn't a prepaid amount, so if your team uses less, you pay less.

The Team Member Limits table lists everyone in your team, plus anyone who used AI this month and has since left. For each person you'll see the credits they've used, the top-up they've used, and their top-up limit.

Use the AI Access switch on each person's row. To change everyone at once, open the menu at the top of the AI Access column and choose Enable All or Disable All.

New team members don't get AI access until you switch it on. That's deliberate: AI can cost you money, so access is always your call.

Everyone with AI access shares the included allowance. Once it's used up, each person's own top-up limit decides how much of your top-up they can use.

Team member limits start at $0, so nobody can use top-up until you give them a limit. Their limits don't need to add up to your account's top-up limit. Your account limit is always the hard stop.

When someone has reached their own limit, a Limit Reached badge shows next to their name.

The top of the AI Usage page tells you what percentage of this month's credits you've used, how many days are left, and, at your current pace, the date you'll run out.

The bar underneath shows each pool of credits as it's used. Click Show Breakdown to see a day-by-day chart of usage, including the day you moved on to granted credits or top-up, and where you're headed by the end of the month.

You're only charged for top-up you've actually used. Nothing is bought in advance, and credits don't need to be used up before they expire.

Top-up is billed separately from your Streamtime subscription. It gets its own invoice, charged to the payment method you've chosen for AI usage. You'll find AI usage invoices alongside your subscription invoices in Invoice History.

Rather than charging for every request, Streamtime adds up your top-up usage and charges it in one go:

There's a minimum per invoice, so small accounts aren't charged tiny amounts. If what's left at the end of the month is under 5 in your billing currency (e.g. A$5), we don't charge it at all. Each invoice covers the exact top-up used, not a rounded amount, and is in your billing currency.

Some payments, like direct debit, take a few days to clear. Your team can keep using AI while that happens, up to a point. If your unpaid top-up grows to one and a half times the charge amount before the payment clears, AI pauses until it does.

AI usage always has its own payment method, set separately from your subscription. It can be the same card you pay your subscription with, or a different one. That way you can, for example, put AI on a team card without touching how your subscription is paid.

Bank transfer isn't available for AI usage, because top-up is charged automatically as it's used. If you pay your subscription by bank transfer, you'll still need a card or direct debit method set for AI.

The new payment method is used for AI straight away.

You can also manage all your payment methods from Account Settings > Billing, under Payment Methods. Each card shows a label for what it pays for (Subscription, AI Usage or both). A card can't be removed while it's paying for something, so move that to another card first.

If an AI usage charge is declined:

To get AI going again straight away, go to Account Settings > Invoice History and click Retry on the unpaid invoice. If the card itself is the problem, add a new payment method for AI first.

The usage on a failed invoice is still owed. Turning AI off doesn't cancel it.

If something is stopping your team from using AI, it will be alerted on the Settings page.