Credit and costs
Every model call is billed individually in euros and is deducted from the credit of the workspace. What a call costs depends on the model.
View the credit
| Place | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Settings > Credit | The remaining amount and how much of all credits has been used so far. In a client workspace it says that topping up happens via the partner. |
| Dashboard | The figure Credit left and the tab Usage |
| Sidebar, below the name of the workspace | No amount. Only when needed a notice: Credit is running low, Credit empty, Monthly limit running low or Monthly limit used up. |
The remaining amount is the sum of all credits minus billed usage, rounded down to two decimal places.
Warnings
| Balance | Settings | Sidebar |
|---|---|---|
| below 5 € | Running low. | Credit is running low |
| 0 € or below | Used up, nothing runs any more. | Credit empty |
Top up credit
Under Settings > Credit, click Top up. You cannot pay directly in the app yet. The dialog shows whom to contact:
- In your own workspace: write to support@lowcloud.de how much you want to top up. You get an invoice. As soon as it is paid, the credit shows up in the workspace.
- In a partner's client workspace: tell the partner how much you need. The partner books it directly into the workspace.
Set a monthly limit
The credit applies to the whole workspace. Under Settings > Members, an admin can set a Monthly limit per member. It caps what the person spends per calendar month out of the credit of the workspace. An admin has no limit.
From 80 % of the limit a warning appears. At 100 % lowcloud rejects the person's calls with "Your monthly limit in this workspace is used up. Ask an admin to raise it." Their runs stop with the status Interrupted.
Empty credit
When the credit is at 0 € or below, lowcloud refuses every model call beforehand. The message is "Your credit is used up." In a client workspace it is "The credit of this workspace is used up. You get new credit via [partner]."
A workflow that is already running does not abort. It stops with the status Interrupted and waits.
This is how you notice a stopped run:
- The entry Runs in the sidebar shows a number: the runs waiting for a decision.
- If a personal, non-interactive run stops, lowcloud sends an email to the person who operates the run. The subject is "[workflow] is stopped". The email links to the workflow page.
Resume run, starting a run and a dictation also check the credit beforehand.
Reading and searching knowledge cost credit but are not blocked when the credit is empty. That is why the balance can drop slightly below 0 €.
Starting credit
A new personal workspace gets a starting credit once. The amount is fixed at creation and does not change afterwards. The interface does not show it as an item of its own. It counts towards the sum of all credits under Settings > Credit.
Two exceptions:
- A workspace that a visitor gets without an account starts with 0.50 €.
- A client workspace gets no starting credit from lowcloud. When creating it, the partner gives it a Starting credit out of the partner's own credit.
Billing
Every model call is booked as a line of its own. What is billed is the provider's cost for that call times 5. If the provider reports no cost, lowcloud calculates with the stored list price of the model times 5.
A booked amount does not change, even if prices or the markup change later. If no price is stored for a call, it shows a dash instead of 0 €.
Building, chat, prompt refinement, reading knowledge and dictation are billed just like a workflow run. A run books per step. If a step uses tools, it books a line of its own for every round with the model.
In the Dashboard, the tab Usage shows the costs in four groups: Workflows, including test runs, Chat, Build and Knowledge. The cost of a single run is shown in the section Runs of the workflow overview, in the column Cost, and at the top of every opened run.
Permissions
The credit amount is visible only to the role admin and the former role developer. This includes an admin of the client in a client workspace, although they do not build there. In the Settings, anyone with the role member sees Your monthly limit with their own spend instead. Of the credit, they only learn whether it is used up.
Only admins open the Dashboard and set monthly limits.