How credits work

Credits control compute usage inside a workspace. This page explains where credits live, when they are charged, how costs are calculated, and how refunds and expiration work.

Understand workspace credits

Credits enter and leave the active workspace balance through grants, job charges, and refunds.

Workspace balance

Credits belong to a workspace, not to an individual account. Everyone in the workspace spends from the same balance, subject to role permissions.

Switching workspaces changes the balance used for new jobs. See Workspaces and seats for the workspace model.

Credit grants

Credits enter a workspace through plan allowances, promotional grants, or refunds. New free workspaces receive 100 promotional credits when the account is created.

Paid plans grant credits for the active billing period. Annual plans grant the annual amount up front for the yearly term.

Credit charges

Paid jobs require enough credits before they start. ProteinIQ deducts credits when the job is created, not when it completes.

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

Included credits

ProteinIQ currently uses these plan allowances:

Active legacy Lite subscriptions continue to include 500 credits per month per seat under an Academic license. Lite is no longer available for new subscriptions and cannot be purchased again after cancellation or an upgrade.

Some older workspaces may use earlier plan names or per-seat plans. The Billing page shows the active workspace’s current plan and credit schedule.

Cost calculation

Each tool defines its credit model. Your submitted input and selected settings determine the final cost.

Common cost models include:

• Flat cost: One fixed cost for the run
• Per input item: Cost scales by sequence, molecule, structure, or record count
• Per structure or external ID: Cost scales by fetched or uploaded structures
• Tool-specific calculator: Cost depends on tool settings or input characteristics
• Time-based billing: Credits are authorized in rolling runtime windows, then unused authorized credits return to the workspace

The credit badge on a tool page shows the credit cost before submission for the configured run. For paid jobs, ProteinIQ validates the workspace balance again and deducts credits when the job is created.

The listed cost is the credit cost for the configured run, not a rough estimate. Time-based tools use the rolling authorization model below.

Time-based billing

Some tools charge for actual billable runtime instead of a fixed job cost. Before submission, the tool shows a per-minute rate, an estimated duration, and an optional maximum spend.

A time-based job stops when its scientific work finishes. It can stop earlier for any of these reasons:

• It reaches its maximum spend
• The workspace cannot fund another authorization
• The tool reaches its runtime limit

ProteinIQ authorizes the job in rolling runtime windows:

• Initial authorization: ProteinIQ deducts enough credits for up to the first 5 minutes, subject to the tool’s minimum and selected maximum
• Rolling renewal: Before the authorized runtime runs out, the job requests another increment of up to 5 minutes. It continues only when the workspace has enough credits and the increment stays within the job and workflow spending limits.
• Completed job: The final charge is the displayed per-minute rate multiplied by actual billable runtime, rounded up to a whole credit. Unused authorized credits return to the workspace balance.
• Maximum reached: The job stops, the authorized credits are charged, and completed outputs and diagnostics remain available when the tool returns them.
• Failed, timed-out, or cancelled job: The authorized credits return to the workspace balance.

For example, a tool charging 45 credits per minute initially authorizes 225 credits for 5 minutes. If it finishes after 8 billable minutes, the final charge is 360 credits even if a larger maximum was selected. Any additional authorized credits return to the workspace balance.

Choose a maximum that covers the estimated duration. Finishing earlier lowers the final charge, and ProteinIQ does not deduct the full maximum upfront.

Workflow spending limits

In a workflow, a node’s maximum spend applies separately to every job created by that node. The total workflow spending limit covers all child jobs.

The total limit can be lower than one job’s maximum. Time-based jobs authorize credits incrementally, and some workflow branches may not run.

Before starting a fixed-price job, ProteinIQ checks the remaining workflow limit. It makes the same check before a time-based job’s first authorization. If the charge exceeds the remaining limit, the workflow pauses before starting that job. Raise the total limit to continue the queued work.

If a running child job’s next authorization would cross the limit, the child stops after its current authorization. The job may return partial results when the scientific tool supports them.

Raising the total limit can continue jobs that have not started. It does not resume compute that has already stopped.

The total limit applies to one workflow run attempt. A retry creates another attempt with the same limit. Attempt history records each attempt’s spending separately.

Job limits and credits

Credits and job limits are separate controls.

• Credits: Limit how much paid compute the workspace can spend
• Daily job limit: Free workspaces can submit up to 3 jobs per day.
• Concurrent job limit: Plans control how many jobs can run or wait at the same time

Paid plans remove the free daily submission cap, but paid jobs still require enough credits.

Credit expiration and renewal

Credits expire based on how they were granted.

• Monthly plan credits: Expire at the end of the monthly billing period
• Annual plan credits: Expire at the end of the annual billing period
• Free workspace credits: The initial 100 promotional credits expire one year after issuance
• Refunded credits: Restore workspace balance after eligible failed or timed-out jobs

Subscription credits do not roll over automatically into the next billing cycle.

Job credit refunds

If a job ends in Failed or Timeout, ProteinIQ records a credit refund automatically. Cancelled jobs can also be refunded when cancellation happens before launch.

ProteinIQ records refunds in the usage ledger, so you can trace both the original charge and the refund entry.

Workflow runs can manage credits at the workflow level, so individual workflow jobs may not follow the same per-job refund path.

Credit refunds and subscription-fee refunds are different systems. Failed-job refunds return credits to the workspace balance. They do not refund a card charge or subscription fee.

Subscription-fee refunds

Subscription fees are non-refundable once paid credits from that subscription have been consumed.

First-time subscribers can request a full subscription-fee refund only when all of these are true:

• First subscription: The request is for the first paid ProteinIQ subscription or credit purchase
• No paid usage: 0 paid credits from that purchase have been consumed
• Written request: The request is sent to support@proteiniq.io within 7 days of the initial purchase

Renewals, later subscriptions, completed jobs, user error, dissatisfaction with scientific or algorithmic results, platform outages, or a change of mind after using the service are not covered by this first-time refund exception, except where required by law or expressly approved by ProteinIQ.

Check your balance and usage

Use Usage to review the current balance and job-level usage history. You can select a date range, inspect the jobs that used credits, and download the visible usage history as CSV.

Use Settings > Billing to review plan credits, subscription state, payment method, and invoice history when your role has billing access.