Credits

Credits are scoped to your current workspace, not your personal account. This page explains when credits are charged, how ProteinIQ calculates tool costs, where to check remaining balance, and what happens to subscription, promotional, and refunded credits over time.

How credits work

Credits are your workspace compute balance. Paid subscriptions add credits for the active billing cycle, and free workspaces start with a promotional welcome balance. When you submit a paid job, ProteinIQ creates the job record and deducts the required credits in the same transaction.

• Workspace-scoped: The balance is stored on the workspace, so members of the same workspace spend from the same credit pool.
• Shown before submission: Paid tools display a credit badge next to the action button. Hovering it shows the job cost and your remaining balance.
• Required up front: A job does not start unless the workspace has enough credits for that run.
• Separate from job count limits: Credits control total compute spend. They are not the same as the free plan's submission cap.

How ProteinIQ calculates cost

ProteinIQ reads each tool's credit configuration directly from its tool definition and uses the same calculator for the frontend estimate and the backend charge. The exact number can vary by tool and input.

• Flat cost: Some tools charge a fixed base amount.
• Per input item: Some tools add credits based on how many FASTA entries, lines, compounds, or other records you submit.
• Per structure or external ID: Some tools scale by the number of PDB structures or fetched identifiers.
• Tool-specific calculator: Some tools use a custom calculator that also considers settings or tool-specific scaling rules.

If a tool shows 0 credits before submission, that run is free.

Included credits by plan

Pricing pages show the current subscription lineup. These are the credit amounts currently attached to each workspace type:

Free workspaces receive a one-time promotional grant of 100 credits when the workspace is created. Paid annual plans multiply the monthly allowance by 12 and grant the full amount at the start of the annual term. For example, Starter annual grants 24,000 credits up front, and a 4-seat Teams annual workspace grants 240,000 credits up front for that year.

Checking balance and usage

Use the settings pages to see both your live balance and the underlying credit schedule.

1. Open Settings > Usage to see your current balance, credits used, and job-by-job usage history for a selected date range.
2. Use Download on the Usage page to export the visible usage history as CSV.
3. Open Settings > Billing to see your current plan, available credits, current credit schedule, and invoice history.

Expiration and renewals

Credits expire based on how they were granted. Subscription credits do not roll into the next cycle automatically.

• Monthly billing: Credits expire at the end of that monthly billing period.
• Annual billing: Credits expire at the end of that annual billing period.
• Free workspace welcome credits: The initial 100 promotional credits expire one year after they are issued.
• Per-seat plans: The total workspace allowance scales with seat count and is shared across the workspace.
• Separate workspaces: Each workspace keeps its own independent credit balance.

When a subscription renews successfully, ProteinIQ grants the next cycle's subscription credits and resets the cycle usage counter.

Refunds for failed jobs

Paid jobs are charged when they are submitted. If a job ends in Failed or Timeout, ProteinIQ records a credit refund and restores the workspace balance.

You can confirm the original charge on the job record or in Settings > Usage. Refund entries also appear in the billing credit ledger.

Next steps

• Pricing and plans: Support-style answers for plan selection and subscription changes
• Pricing and billing: The conceptual pricing model and billing mechanics
• Jobs: Job states, history, and result management
• Billing and invoices: Payment methods, invoices, and billing details