Credits & Refunds Policy

1.The short version

2.Accounts without credits

• A new account has no credit. Every request, batch and fine-tuning job needs prepaid credits; without them, requests are refused with HTTP 402 and the code insufficient_credits.
• Until its first purchase, an account is limited to 60 requests a minute per key and 5 active keys.

3.Buying credits

1. Your agent asks for a top-up (npx -y scaledthought@0.3 billing topup --amount-usd 20, POST /v1/billing/topup or the MCP tool billing_topup) and gets an approval link. Each purchase is between $20 and $2,000, in whole cents. At most $2,000 can be added to an account in any 24 hours, counting paid purchases, open approval links and auto-reloads together.
2. A human opens the link, confirms or changes the amount, chooses whether to turn on auto-reload, then accepts the Terms of Service and this policy and pays by card on a Stripe Checkout page. The link stops working after 23 hours; an account can have at most 2 unpaid links at a time.
3. Credits are added only when Stripe confirms the payment, usually within a minute, never just because the payment page redirected. Your agent can check with GET /v1/billing.

Prices don't include taxes. Where we are required to collect sales tax, GST/HST, QST or similar taxes, they will be shown on the payment page before you pay. Every purchase, debit and refund is recorded in your credit ledger (GET /v1/billing/transactions).

4.How credits are used

• Credits don't expire. They belong to the account they were bought for and can't be transferred to another account or exchanged for cash, except as refunds under this policy.
• Inference is charged at each model's published per-token price, from the token counts the model server reports. Batches cost 50% of the list price.
• Fine-tuning takes its estimated cost from your credits when the job is created, and settles the difference when it finishes. If you cancel a job, or it fails, the estimate is returned to your credits: you pay only for jobs that succeed.
• You can cap spending per key with a daily budget; a key over its budget is refused.

5.When credits run out

When your credits can't cover a new request, it is refused with HTTP 402 and the code insufficient_credits, and nothing more is spent. Requests already in progress are allowed to finish, so your balance can go slightly below zero; the shortfall is taken from your next purchase. We don't send invoices for usage.

Batches check your credits before each chunk of requests. If credits run out part-way, the batch stops, the remaining requests fail with insufficient_credits, and you pay only for the requests that ran.

6.Auto-reload

Auto-reload is optional. A human turns it on with a purchase, or on its own without buying credits (saving a card on a Stripe page), and approves two numbers: a threshold and a reload amount ($20 to $2,000). There is no monthly limit unless one is set through the API. Approving it saves the card with Stripe for these charges; without auto-reload, the card is not saved.

• When usage takes your balance below the threshold, we charge the saved card the reload amount. Only one reload runs at a time.
• If a monthly limit is set, reloads stop for the rest of the calendar month (UTC) once they would exceed it.
• A reload that would take the account over $2,000 added in 24 hours waits until it fits.
• Your agent can turn auto-reload off or lower its numbers at any time without approval (npx -y scaledthought@0.3 billing auto-reload off or PATCH /v1/billing/auto-reload). Turning it on or raising any number needs a new human approval.
• If a reload fails (for example, the card is declined or the bank asks for authentication), or a payment on the account is disputed, auto-reload turns itself off. Refused requests then tell your agent to get a new top-up approved.

7.Refunds

You can ask for a refund of unused purchased credits within 6 months of the purchase, by emailing support@scaledthought.com from the account's email or with a request we can verify came from the account. We refund:

• to the original payment method, through Stripe;
• newest payment first, splitting across payments if needed;
• never more than your current credit balance, and never more than what is left of each payment after earlier refunds.

We don't refund credits already spent, credit that wasn't paid for (any your account received before October 10, 2026), or payments that are the subject of a dispute. A refund is recorded in your credit ledger and reduces your balance straight away; how long it takes to reach your card depends on your card issuer. If you close your account, you can ask for your unused purchased credits under the same rules.

If we charged you in error, or took credits for a request that failed on our side, tell us at support@scaledthought.com and we will correct it, whatever the date.

8.Chargebacks and disputes

Please contact us at support@scaledthought.com before disputing a charge with your bank; most problems can be fixed faster directly.

When a payment is disputed, auto-reload is turned off and the account is flagged for review. While the dispute is open we may suspend the account. Credits from a disputed payment can't also be refunded, and if the dispute is decided in your favour we may remove those credits from your balance.

9.Price and policy changes

Prices are published per model on our pricing page. Changes apply to requests made after they are published and never reduce the dollar value of credits you already hold. Changes to this policy follow the change process in the Terms of Service.