URL: /cloud/credits

---
title: "Credits & Pricing"
description: "How cloud credits work, what each feature costs, and how to control spend"
icon: "coins"
---

Cloud features are priced in **credits** - small integers, not dollars. Local audits never cost credits.

## Getting credits

| Source | Credits | Notes |
|--------|---------|-------|
| Free plan | 500/month | Every account, no card required; resets each calendar month |
| Pro plan ($19/mo) | 5,000/month | Resets each billing period; unused monthly credits expire |
| Credit top-up (min $10) | 100 per $1 | Paid plan only; pick any amount; never expire |

Monthly credits are spent before purchased top-up credits. Subscribe and top up from the **Billing & Credits** page in the [dashboard](/dashboard).

## Checking your balance

```bash
squirrel credits
```

```
Plan:    Pro
Balance: 2340 credits (2000 monthly + 340 purchased)
         monthly credits reset 2026-07-08

Pricing:
  ai_parse               1 per page
  site_type              5 per run
  ...

Top up: https://squirrelscan.com/account/credits
```

`squirrel auth status` also shows your balance, and the start banner of every audit shows the estimated spend against it.

## Pricing

| Feature | Cost | Used by |
|---------|------|---------|
| Report publishing | 2 per report | `squirrel audit --publish` |
| AI page analysis | 1 per page | [`ai/llm-parsability`](/rules/ai/llm-parsability), [`ai/page-type-match`](/rules/ai/page-type-match) |
| Site type detection | 5 per audit | [`ai/site-type`](/rules/ai/site-type) |
| Authority signals | 1 per page | [`eeat/authority-signals`](/rules/eeat/authority-signals) |
| Adblock/privacy check | 5 per audit | All three [adblock rules](/rules/adblock) share one check |
| Dead link checking | 1 per 100 URLs | [`links/dead-links`](/rules/links/dead-links) |
| Browser rendering | 2 per page | [Cloud rendering](/cloud/rendering) |
| Keyword gaps | 25 per audit | [`gaps/keywords`](/rules/gaps/keywords) (opt-in) |
| Content gaps | 25 per audit | [`gaps/content`](/rules/gaps/content) (opt-in) |
| Issue enrichment | 1 per issue | AI recommendations in the dashboard |

A typical 50-page audit with the default cloud rules costs around **60-110 credits** depending on how many pages the per-page rules analyze.

## Spend controls

Three guardrails keep an audit from spending more than you expect:

```toml squirrel.toml
[cloud]
max_credits_per_audit = 200   # hard cap per audit; 0 = unlimited
confirm_threshold = 50        # estimates above this prompt before spending
enabled = true                # master switch for all cloud features
```

- **Per-audit cap** - if the estimate exceeds `max_credits_per_audit`, work is truncated deterministically at the cap and remaining rules report `skipped` with reason `credit-cap-reached`.
- **Confirmation prompt** - in a terminal, an estimate above `confirm_threshold` asks before proceeding. Use `--yes` to skip prompts (e.g. in CI or agent workflows). Non-interactive runs proceed without prompting, bounded by the cap.
- **Master switch** - `enabled = false` turns off all cloud calls for the project.

See the [cloud configuration reference](/configuration/cloud) for all options.

## When credits run out

Nothing breaks. Cloud rules report `skipped` with reason `insufficient-credits`, the audit completes with all local rules, and you see a single warning with a top-up link. If a cloud service fails entirely after you were charged, the charge is automatically refunded.