Credits and Billing
This page explains exactly how AltText.ai credits work — when they roll over, when they don't, and what happens to them when you change or cancel your plan. If a support answer ever disagrees with this page, this page is correct.
How credits work
Your account holds credits in three separate buckets:
- Plan credits — the allocation that comes with your subscription, granted at the start of each billing period. On a monthly plan that is a fresh allocation every month; on an annual plan you receive your full year's allocation once at the start of the annual period (an annual plan's quota is 12× the monthly number).
- Rollover credits — plan credits from a previous period that carried forward (see below). Once banked, they stay in your account.
- One-time credit packs — credits you buy as a one-time top-up, separate from any plan. These are not tied to a billing cycle.
Your total available balance is your current plan credits plus any banked rollover credits plus any one-time credit packs.
When credits roll over
Unused plan credits roll over into the next period only when your plan renews normally on its regular cycle without a plan change. On a natural same-plan renewal, whatever you did not use that period is added to your rollover balance.
Rollover does not apply to AppSumo plans (see below).
What happens when you change plans
Important
Changing your plan — whether you upgrade or downgrade — forfeits the current billing period's unused plan credits at the moment the change takes effect. Credits you have already banked as rollover, and any one-time credit packs, are not affected and stay in your account.
Only the current period's unused plan allocation is lost on a plan change. Everything you have already banked carries through.
To avoid losing the current period's credits when you switch plans, spend down the current period's plan credits before you change plans. There is no timing trick that preserves them — a plan change forfeits the current period's unused plan allocation whenever it takes effect, including right before a renewal date. Only a normal same-plan renewal rolls unused credits forward, and any plan change replaces that renewal with an update that does not.
What happens on a downgrade
A downgrade forfeits the current period's unused plan credits like any plan change. Your usage counter for the period is retained across the downgrade — you do not receive a fresh, zeroed counter that would let you re-consume credits you have already used.
What happens when you cancel
When you cancel, your plan quota is set to zero at the end of your current billing period — no new plan credits accrue after that. One-time credit packs and any banked rollover credits remain in your account. Your generated alt text and image library are kept permanently. See Account Cancellation for the full details of what you keep and what changes.
AppSumo plans
AppSumo lifetime plans work differently: monthly credits reset each month and do not roll over. Unused credits do not carry into the next month — they reset to your tier's allocation on your monthly anniversary date. See the AppSumo Deal page for full details.