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How credits work

Understanding Pulse's credit-based billing model — what costs credits and how they reset.

Written by John Kotowski

What are credits?

Credits are the unit of consumption in Pulse. Every action that uses compute — opening a company's details, viewing a diff, running an AI Research skill, or making an API/MCP call — deducts from your team's credit balance. Browsing and searching the catalog is free.

How credits are allocated

  • Free — 200 lifetime credits. They never expire, but they never reset either. Once used, upgrade to Pro for more.

  • Pro — monthly credits that reset each billing cycle. Unused credits do not roll over. Pro tiers range from 500 credits/mo ($25) to 12,000 credits/mo ($600).

  • Enterprise — a custom credit pool negotiated at contract time.

Credit cost by action

Action

Credits

Search companies, search pricing pages, pricing news

5

View a company's pricing history

5

Open a company's details

15

View a diff (web app or API)

15 — charged once per diff

Run an AI Research skill (most)

250

Ask Ulrik (pricing-strategy expert)

50

Check status, view a watchlist, add to a watchlist

Free

Important billing rules

  • Diffs are charged once. Viewing a diff in the app costs 15 credits the first time; opening it again later is free.

  • Public diffs are free for everyone — no credits are deducted.

  • API and MCP calls are charged every time. Unlike the web app, programmatic calls aren't de-duplicated — each call to fetch a company or diff costs credits.

Where to see your balance

Click your name at the bottom-left of the navigation for a quick view of credits remaining. For full detail, go to Settings → Plan, where the Credit wallet shows your remaining balance, your monthly allotment, and (on Pro) the next replenishment date. The Credit Ledger on the same page lists every credit-consuming action with its date and cost.

What happens when you run out

Free users who reach 200 credits move to read-only mode — you can still browse, but credit-consuming actions are paused until you upgrade. Note that the 200-credit Free tier isn't enough to complete a full AI Research skill (most cost 250). To run reports, upgrade to Pro.

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