Chatbot Credits

How Boei counts chatbot credits, what spends them, and what happens when you run out.

How to get there: Go to Settings → Account & Billing in the left menu to see your current plan and monthly chatbot credit usage.

What Are Chatbot Credits?

AI plans include a monthly chatbot credit budget. Widget Only and some existing widget plans instead include 250 one-time test credits. These test credits do not reset each month. Each AI step uses credits at your selected model’s rate. One reply can need more than one AI step, for example when the chatbot looks something up before answering. Compare the model choices and their credit rates.

Credits reset on the 1st of each month, and any unused credits do not roll over.

What Spends Credits

Credits are only deducted when Boei calls an AI model on your behalf. The most common cases:

AI replies to visitors. Each model call used to answer a visitor costs credits at the rate shown in your chatbot settings.
Agent Mode and AI Actions. When Agent Mode or AI Actions are enabled, a single reply may use additional credits depending on how many actions the agent performs (for example, looking up an order or checking availability). The model calls before and after an action each count as an AI step. Running a tool is not a separate model call by itself.
Lead extraction. When the chatbot collects a lead (name, email, etc.) it uses a small, cheap model in the background to parse the visitor's answer.
Handoff summary on escalation. When a conversation escalates to a live agent and you have the AI Summary feature on your plan, the chatbot generates a short summary of the conversation as an internal note for the agent. This costs roughly one credit per escalation.
Testing your own chatbot. Trying a question in the test chat, or asking the AI Coach or the Copilot to check what your chatbot answers, runs your chatbot for real. That reply costs credits at your chatbot's own model rate, exactly like a reply to a visitor. A chat you start in the test chat also counts as a conversation, the same as a visitor's would. A check the Coach or the Copilot runs for you does not: it costs credits only.
Asking the AI Coach or the Copilot. What you ask them costs credits while they work. If they test your chatbot as part of the answer, that test reply is charged on top.

What Does NOT Spend Credits

These actions are free and never count against your monthly budget:

Visitor messages while waiting in the live chat queue
Messages between a visitor and a human agent (in either direction)
Saved replies sent by an agent
The widget loading, the opening message, quick-button text, and form fields
Reading and exporting conversations from the inbox

Live Chat Only Mode

If your chatbot is set to Live Chat Only (AI agents → Handoff → "Live Chat Only"), the AI never replies to visitors. The bot routes every new conversation straight to your agents.

In this mode:

Visitor messages never spend credits. They flow directly to your live chat queue.
You will not see "low credits" errors blocking visitors from reaching your team, even if your monthly credit budget is at zero.
The only AI cost is the handoff summary (roughly one credit per escalation), and only if AI Summary is included in your plan.

This means a Live Chat Only chatbot can operate normally even on plans with a small monthly credit budget. The credits are essentially only used for the optional agent summary.

See Skip AI Routing for how to configure this mode and when it makes sense.

What Happens When You Run Out

If your account hits its monthly credit limit and you do not have a custom overage agreement:

Pure AI chatbots: New visitor messages are blocked with a "currently unavailable" notice in the widget until credits reset or you upgrade.
Chatbots with live chat enabled (AI + Live Chat): Visitors are still blocked from getting AI replies. They can still reach a human if they explicitly click the "Live Chat" button (if you have one configured) and the bot escalates without an AI summary.
Live Chat Only chatbots: Visitors continue to reach your agents normally. The handoff summary is automatically skipped so the conversation is not interrupted. Agents still get notified of the new chat as usual; they just won't see the AI-generated summary at the top of the thread.
The AI Coach and the Copilot: New questions to either one are paused, and so is testing what your chatbot answers. This is true even on a Live Chat Only chatbot: your visitors keep reaching your agents, but the two assistants in your dashboard use AI, so they stop at the limit like everything else that does.

Nothing you have already asked is lost. Your earlier conversations with the Coach and the Copilot stay on screen and you can still read all of them. When you open either one, it tells you that you have reached your limit and links to your account page, where you can raise it.

You will also receive a warning email when your account crosses the 90% threshold so you can decide whether to upgrade before hitting the cap.

Tips for Managing Credits

Choose the right AI model. Auto uses 1 credit per AI step. Premium choices use 5 or 10 credits per step. Compare the choices and test your usual questions before switching.
Use Live Chat Only for sales-first chatbots. If your goal is always to route to a human, switch to Live Chat Only so visitor messages don't consume credits.
Watch the monthly usage in Account. The progress bar shows how fast you're burning credits and whether you need to upgrade before month-end.
Train your knowledge base. A well-trained chatbot answers in fewer turns, which means fewer credits per conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my agent's reply cost credits?
No. Anything sent by a human agent is free, regardless of channel.

Does the AI summary still run if I'm over my limit?
No. To protect you from going further over the limit, the summary is automatically skipped when your account is at or over its monthly credit budget. The conversation still escalates and your agents are still notified.

Do widget views or page impressions cost credits?
No. Credits only count AI calls.

Can I buy extra credits mid-month?
Upgrading your plan immediately raises your monthly limit. Talk to support if you need a one-off top-up or invoice-based billing.

Why did I get a "low credits" warning when my bot is Live Chat Only?
This was an older behavior. Live Chat Only chatbots are now excluded from the credit gate and the 90% warning emails because they don't deduct credits for visitor replies. If you still see the warning, check whether you have any other chatbots on the same account that are running AI mode.

Pausing an Unused Test Chatbot

If your account has at most 250 one-time AI credits and no monthly AI allowance, an unused chatbot can be paused to save storage. This also applies when you pay for the website widget or have a lifetime widget deal. Your widget subscription stays active.

After 14 days without a chatbot conversation, we email you a warning. If the chatbot stays unused for another 7 days, we pause it. Sending it a message keeps it active. Active trials and accounts with monthly AI credits, a larger one-time allowance or unlimited AI credits are excluded.

Pausing removes the search index and its text blocks. Your settings, FAQ, source page content, files and conversation history stay saved. You can reactivate the chatbot from its dashboard. Boei then rebuilds the search index from the saved content. Reactivating does not refill your AI credits.

You can compare plans with monthly AI credits on our pricing page.