Usage Rates
- How AutoTalk's pure-usage pricing works
- Every resource that's metered and what it measures
- How spending controls and the low-balance block protect you
AutoTalk has no plans or tiers — you pay only for what you use, in credits (100 credits = US$1, so 1 credit = 1¢), funded from your prepaid wallet. Every new account starts with US$5 worth of credits (500 credits); these trial credits expire 30 days after signup (purchased credits never expire). The exact per-unit rates are shown in the app; this page explains what each meter measures.
What's metered
Usage meters
| Meter | What it measures |
|---|---|
Compute time (compute_ms) | Server processing time consumed by your requests, in milliseconds |
Normalized input tokens (tokens_in) | Model-weighted input tokens sent to AI agents — see Normalized Tokens |
Normalized output tokens (tokens_out) | Model-weighted output tokens generated by AI agents — see Normalized Tokens |
Audio (audio_ms) | Audio transcribed, in milliseconds, normalized by a per-model weight — so the metered value is not necessarily the raw duration (the same mechanism as tokens above). See Normalized Tokens |
Transcoding (transcoding_ms) | Time spent transcoding media files, in milliseconds |
File storage (storage_byte_day) | Bytes of files you keep, billed per byte-day |
Database storage (database_byte_day) | Bytes your company's records occupy, billed per byte-day |
Hosted channel uptime
Some channels keep a live connection open that AutoTalk hosts for you, so they are billed per connected-minute while online:
| Meter | What it measures |
|---|---|
Hosted WhatsApp uptime (channel_minutes_lancer) | Minutes an internal (AutoTalk-hosted) WhatsApp-Web channel is connected |
Discord uptime (channel_minutes_discord) | Minutes a Discord bot connection is live |
IRC uptime (channel_minutes_irc) | Minutes a relay-hosted IRC connection is live (including Twitch chat connected via the IRC Twitch preset) |
Channels that don't hold a hosted connection — the official WhatsApp Business API, Telegram, Meta/Instagram, the native Twitch channel, web widgets, and a bring-your-own Evolution server — do not accrue uptime charges. They are billed only for the usage they generate (compute, tokens, and so on). Note that Twitch chat connected through the IRC Twitch preset is an IRC channel and is billed as channel_minutes_irc.
Safety caps
A few resources keep hard caps purely to prevent abuse. These are not billed tiers and rarely bite:
| Limit | What it caps |
|---|---|
| Messaging channels | Maximum channels connected at once |
| WhatsApp QR-code instances | Maximum hosted WhatsApp-Web instances |
| API tokens | Maximum long-lived API tokens |
| Team members | Maximum admin and regular employees |
Spending controls
You are always in control of how much you spend:
- Low-balance block — when your wallet reaches zero, usage is paused automatically so you never run up an uncollectable bill. Top up to resume.
- Monthly budget (optional) — set a monthly credits limit on the Spending controls page. Choose to either block usage or just warn when you reach it, and get alerts at thresholds (for example 50% / 80% / 100%). You can also set per-category sub-budgets (AI, channels, audio, storage).
Next steps
- Wallet & Top-ups — Add credits and see how they are applied
- Normalized Tokens — How
tokens_inandtokens_outare computed across AI models - Usage history — Review your consumption trends