How credits work
Think of credits like tokens at an arcade — different actions cost different amounts based on how much computing they need. Unused credits carry over to the next month, up to your monthly plan limit. When your billing cycle resets, you’ll get your monthly allocation added to any unused credits (capped at your plan limit). This means you can accumulate up to 2x your monthly credits.View your credit balance
You can check your current credit balance at any time in Settings → Subscription. Once you start typing a prompt, the credit cost appears just below the generation bar — for example Cost 8 credits • You have 1,240 credits. Click that line to also show how many runs you have left at your current settings.- Cost N credits — how many credits this generation will use with the currently selected quality and versions.
- N runs left — how many more generations you can run at these settings before your balance runs out. Click the credit line to show it; it isn’t shown on the Free plan.
- You have N credits — your remaining credit balance.
- N gifts left — how many friends you can still gift signup credits to this month. If you aren’t eligible to gift, this reads Earn free credits instead.
Review credit spend
Workspace admins can see how credits have been spent in Settings → Usage. It shows spend for the current billing period, broken down by activity and by workspace member, alongside your remaining balance and reset date. See Usage page for details.Usage page
Workspace admins can open Settings → Usage to review credit consumption for the workspace’s current billing period. The page shows:- Billing period — the date range the figures cover, and the reset date when your credits refresh.
- Balance summary — credits left and credits used against credits included in your plan.
- By activity — a breakdown of spend by the type of action (for example, image generation, video generation, edit image).
- By workspace member — each member’s credit consumption and their share of the credits included in your plan.
- Activity log — every generation and credit top-up in the period, with who ran it and what it cost.
- Export CSV — download the activity log as a spreadsheet.
Credit costs by action
Here’s what you’ll spend for common tasks:Watermarks
The Kive.ai watermark only appears on images generated on the Free plan (videos are not watermarked). If you’re on a Basic, Pro, or Enterprise plan, your generated images have no watermarks. If you’re seeing watermarks on your images, upgrade to any paid plan to remove them.Compare plans
View current pricing and compare features across all plans at kive.ai/pricing.Understanding pricing
When you see two prices for a plan (like 20/month):- Lower price is the annual billing rate (billed yearly with a 25% discount)
- Higher price is the monthly billing rate
- $20/month = 1,000 credits
- $40/month = 2,000 credits
Prices do not include taxes. VAT and other taxes are added based on your location at checkout (e.g., UK users see 20% VAT added).
Adjusting your credit limit
Basic and Pro plans offer multiple monthly credit limits to choose from. You can increase your credit limit without upgrading to a different plan tier — just select a higher limit within your current plan. This lets you dial in a limit that feels right for your usage without paying for features you don’t need.Buying one-time credits
Paid Basic and Pro workspaces can buy one-time credits from Settings → Subscription without changing plans. One-time credits are added to your workspace after payment is confirmed and unused credits roll over as long as you do not downgrade or cancel your account. One-time credits are meant for temporary spikes in usage. They cost more per credit than increasing your monthly credit limit, so increasing your plan’s credit limit is usually better for ongoing usage. Each billing month, the total amount of one-time credits you can buy is capped at your plan’s monthly credit limit. For example, if your plan includes 5,000 credits per month, you can buy up to 5,000 one-time credits during that billing month.Kive only shows top-up amounts that are available for your plan and monthly top-up allowance.
Get free credits
You can earn extra credits without upgrading your plan through these programs: Affiliate program: Become a partner and earn commissions. Apply at partners.dub.co/kive. Referral rewards: Share your AI generations on social media to earn credits. Email credits@kive.ai with a link to your social media post and your Kive account email — the team will review and add credits to your account. You can also open the Credits dropdown in the top header and click Earn free credits at the bottom to learn more. If you’re still eligible to gift signup credits, that link reads N gifts left instead.There is no dedicated student discount, but students with a social media following can earn bonus credits through the Instagram program above.