Monofile meters AI usage in credits, held in a balance that refills every billing period.

## What credits pay for

Credits pay for the model work behind your tasks. That means what the assistant reads (your message, the conversation so far, any file content you mentioned, tool results) and what it produces (its reply, plus its internal reasoning). A task that reads six files and writes three costs more than a one line question. A long conversation costs more per message than a fresh one, because its whole history goes into every turn.

Monofile holds credits in dollars and cents, so the balance you see is the cost of the model calls.

| Plan | Credits |
|---|---|
| Pro, on a personal workspace | $10 of AI credits per month |
| Team, in an organization | $10 per seat per month, pooled across the whole organization |

> [!NOTE]
> Every member's tasks, and every agent acting in that workspace, draw from the same organization pool. Your personal Pro subscription never funds work inside an organization. See [[Personal and Team]].

## Effort presets

You pick how much effort a conversation should spend, and the preset chooses the model and the depth of reasoning behind it. There is no model picker.

| Preset | Best for |
|---|---|
| **Fast** | Quick answers for simple tasks |
| **Balanced** | Good quality for everyday work. The default |
| **Thorough** | Deeper reasoning for harder problems |
| **Max** | Maximum reasoning for the hardest tasks |

Higher effort costs more per message and takes longer, and it also allows longer answers, which matters for jobs that produce a lot of writing. Reach for Thorough or Max when a task involves many files, careful reasoning about an existing codebase or document set, or a plan you intend to act on. Leave everyday work on Balanced. The selector is in the composer footer, next to the mode selector, and it applies to what you send next.

## The budget for one task

When a task starts, it reserves a ceiling from your balance. The ceiling comes from what the task could cost across its step limit, capped by the credits you have.

- While the task runs, the credits button shows live spend against that ceiling: "This run".
- If the task reaches the ceiling, it stops at the end of a step, leaves a note in the conversation that the budget was reached, and keeps the work it finished. Sending another message continues from there.
- When the task settles, Monofile charges what it used and returns the rest of the reservation. A stopped or failed task bills only the model calls that ran. See [[Long-Running Tasks]].

## Where to see your balance

The credits button sits in the composer footer and shows the amount available. Open it for:

- Credits available out of the period total, with a bar.
- The date the balance resets.
- The live meter for a task in progress.
- **Manage**, which opens your subscription and payment details.
- In an organization: **Team credits**, the seat count, and a breakdown of usage this period per member and per agent.

## When you run out

A task will not start without credits. The assistant tells you that credits are exhausted, and the balance refills at the start of your next billing period. Until then you can buy a one-time top-up ($5, $10 or $25 of AI usage) on the Plan and usage page, raise your limit by changing plan, or keep working without AI. Free accounts see an upgrade prompt in the same place, since the assistant and the inline composer both require a plan.

> [!TIP]
> Two habits stretch a balance: start a new conversation per job, and mention the files that matter so the assistant does not spend credits searching for them. See [[Context and Mentions]].

## Next steps

:::cards
- [[Plans and Billing]] — Free, Pro and Team: what each includes, and how credits and seats work.
- [[Long-Running Tasks]] — Durable runs that survive reloads and closed tabs, and how to watch or stop them.
- [[Context and Mentions]] — Mention files, attach images and PDFs, and control what the assistant sees.
- [[Personal and Team]] — How the two workspace types differ, and how switching works.
:::