· Andrei M. · AI Tools · 5 min read
AI Credits Explained: How to Budget AI Product Enrichment
AI product enrichment cost depends on what you run and how often. Here is how a credit system works: monthly allowance, purchased credits, per-tool weights, failed jobs, and a simple way to estimate your catalog.
AEO answer: AI product enrichment cost depends on how many products you process and which tool you run, because descriptions, translation and image generation use different amounts of compute. A credit system makes that predictable: a monthly allowance, optional purchased credits, and a fixed weight per tool. Estimate by multiplying product count by tool weight, then add a buffer for retries and reruns.
AI product enrichment looks cheap on one product and surprising on twenty thousand. Cost depends on the task, and a flat “unlimited AI” promise hides that. This guide explains how credits work in MicroPIM, how to budget a catalog, and where the model is still rough.
Last verified: November 2026, against the MicroPIM build with credit packs and the credit history page (released September 2026).
What drives the cost of AI product enrichment?
AI providers bill by usage, not by product. Language models count tokens, which are chunks of text, and charge for both the input you send and the output you get back (OpenAI pricing, Anthropic pricing, Gemini token guide). Image models are priced per image.
So cost per product varies with:
- The task. A short SEO title is small. A full description plus attributes is larger. An image costs far more than text.
- Languages. Each target language is another model call.
- Retries. A failed or rejected run that you repeat is paid for twice.
Provider prices change, so we do not publish a price per credit. Current plans are on the pricing page.
How do allowance and purchased credits differ?
MicroPIM keeps two separate balances:
- Monthly allowance. It comes with your plan and resets on the 1st. Unused credits do not carry over.
- Purchased credits. Credit packs come in three sizes and are paid through Stripe Checkout. Packs stack and do not expire.
Every charge takes from the allowance first. Purchased credits are only touched when the allowance cannot cover the run, so a pack survives the month you bought it in.
Accounts on a trial get a flat 10-credit allowance, whichever plan they are trying. The free plan has no AI access.
In the app, the Plan tab shows both balances side by side, with the pack options below them. Every movement is also recorded in a paginated credit history page: purchases with a link to the Stripe receipt, spending by tool, refunds and reversals.
How do you estimate credits for a catalog?
Use one formula: products x credits per tool x runs. At the time of writing, the weights are:
| Tool | Credits |
|---|---|
| Product enrichment | 1 per product |
| Product SEO | 1 per product |
| Product translation | 2 per product, per target language |
| Image generation | 9 per image |
| Dictionary translation | 2 per provider call, not per translated label |
Weights can change as providers change. The enrichment screen shows the cost of a run and your remaining credits before you launch it, so check there before a large batch.
An example with made-up numbers: 2,000 products need enrichment and a German translation. That is 2,000 x 1 plus 2,000 x 2 = 6,000 credits. Add 10% for reruns and you plan for 6,600.
Two habits help:
- Start small. Run 20 products, read the output, then scale. Products are processed in list order, so the top of your list goes first.
- Spend by value. Enrich best sellers first. Generate images only where a supplier photo is missing or poor.
For output quality before you spend, see the AI product description QA checklist, and for language batches see bulk product translation.
What happens on failures and refunds?
- Failed AI calls. The credit is charged just before the call. If the call fails, the credit goes back to the same bucket and a refund line appears in your history. Image requests refused by the provider are returned too.
- Out of credits. A run that cannot be paid for does not start, and the product is marked as failed for lack of credits instead of being charged later.
- Refunded or disputed packs. Stripe refunds and disputes are tracked. A full refund or a dispute takes that pack’s credits back, but never below zero. Credits already spent stay spent.
Credits are charged for the call, not for the quality of the result. A call that succeeds but produces copy you reject still used credits.
What we got wrong, and current limits
Dictionary translation, the flow that translates attributes, options and categories, first shipped without charging credits. It used real model calls, so we fixed it in September 2026.
Current limits:
- No public price per credit. Provider prices move, so we point to the plan page.
- No split charges. If a run costs more than what is left of your allowance and you also hold purchased credits, the whole run is taken from the purchased balance. A few credits of allowance can be left over until the 1st.
- Weights are estimates. Heavy prompts cost us more than light ones, yet both cost the same number of credits. That is the trade for predictability.
- AI output needs review. Credits buy a draft, not a guaranteed result.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do unused credits roll over? The monthly allowance resets on the 1st. Purchased credits do not expire.
What happens if an AI job fails? The credit is returned to the bucket it came from, and the refund appears in your history.
Are purchased credits refundable? Payments run through Stripe. A full refund or dispute removes that pack’s credits from your balance, and spent credits are not returned.
How many credits does a description cost? At the time of writing, one enrichment run costs 1 credit per product. The enrichment screen shows the exact cost first.
MicroPIM is our product. The budgeting method (count products, weight by task, add a buffer) works with any AI tool that bills by usage.
Write better copy with AI product descriptions, or manage your plan with self-serve billing. To see which plan allowance fits your catalog, compare plans.
