What happens when you run out of credits
Written By Paolo Rufrano
Last updated 1 day ago
Running out of credits doesn't lock you out of Percy Chat. Free models keep working, and everything else pauses until your allowance resets or you top up.
What still works
Plain chat on free models. Models with the Free badge cost nothing to run, so they're never gated by your balance. You can carry on having conversations indefinitely at zero credits.
Everything else in the app still works too. Your chats, search, projects, share links and settings are all unaffected.
What pauses
Web search is the one that catches people out: it pauses even on free models. That's because a search is billed per query by the search provider, whatever model is reading the results.
The messages you'll see
Trying a paid model:
You are out of credits. Efficient models are still available, your allowance resets next billing period, or you can top up now.
Switch to a model with the Free badge and send again.
Trying thinking or web search:
You are out of credits, so thinking and web search are paused. Plain chat on efficient models is still available, or you can top up now.
Open More options (the sliders icon) and turn both switches off.
Trying to generate an image:
You are out of credits. Your allowance resets next billing period, or you can top up now.
Getting back to full access
Wait for the reset. Your allowance refills at the start of your next billing period, which is the 1st of the month on Free or your renewal date on a paid plan. Check the dates at the top of Settings → Usage.
Top up. Buy a credit pack for immediate access. Purchased credits never expire and are only spent after your monthly allowance runs out, so nothing is wasted. See Topping up with credit packs.
Upgrade. A bigger plan means a bigger monthly allowance: 6,000 on Pro and 15,000 on Premium, against 300 on Free. See Plans and pricing.
Running out faster than expected?
A few things burn credits quickly:
Long conversations. The whole thread is re-sent to the model every turn, so message 40 costs far more than message 4. Start a new chat, or branch, when you change topic. See Message length and context limits.
Advanced thinking. Reasoning tokens are billed even though you mostly don't read them.
Frontier models on simple questions. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive models is enormous.
Settings → Usage shows how much you've spent this period, and the balance updates live as replies come in, so you can see what a given model actually costs before committing to it.