How many credits do I need a month — three worked profiles

Nobody can answer this from the outside, because it depends entirely on what you make and how often. What can be done — and what almost no pricing page does — is show the arithmetic for three realistic people, so you can find the one nearest to you and adjust. Every number below comes from the published per-engine prices.

One thing first, because it changes how carefully you need to guess: credits never expire and monthly plan credits roll over forever. Overshooting is a buffer, not waste. Undershooting means topping up mid-month at a worse rate. So size slightly high.

What one credit does

A reference first. Here is how far a thousand credits, the entry pack at $10, goes when it all goes on one thing:

Spent on	Credits each	Per 1,000 credits
Images on Krea2	10	100
5-second clips on Seedance 2.0 Fast	195	5
5-second clips on Kling 3.0, with sound	270	3
5-second clips on Seedance 2.5	490	2
8-second clips with sound on Veo 3.1 Fast	344	2
Minutes of narration on Voice One (3 credits per 100 characters, about 900 characters a minute)	27	37

Video is the only line that matters for most budgets. Images, voice and text are rounding errors beside it, so every profile below is really a video budget with small lines attached.

Profile one — the solo creator posting a few shorts a week

Three posts a week, twelve a month. One hero clip each, cut with stills and text, a cover image per post, a voice-over where it helps, and a draft only where the shot is uncertain — call it half of them.

• Drafts, 4 seconds on Seedance 2.0 Fast at 156 credits — 6 × 156 = 936
• Hero clips, 10 seconds on Seedance 2.0 Fast at 390 credits — 12 × 390 = 4,680
• Covers, 10 credits each — 12 × 10 = 120
• Voice-over on four posts, 400 characters each on Voice One — 4 blocks × 3 = 12 credits each — 4 × 12 = 48

Total 5,784 credits a month.

Recommended plan — Creator, $49 for 6,000 credits. It fits with 216 to spare, which is the reshoot budget. Seedance 2.0 Fast opens on Hobby, but Hobby's 1,800 credits fall 3,984 short of this month, so Hobby only works with fewer hero clips or shorter ones.

The sensitivity matters, because it is how this profile outgrows Creator: a second take on every hero clip adds 12 × 390 = 4,680 credits, for 10,464 a month, 4,464 past Creator's allowance. Once in a while a pack covers that; if two takes are a habit rather than an exception, size for Studio.

Profile two — the small brand doing product clips

Eight product spots a month for paid social, each needing to look like an ad rather than a post. One spot a month is the hero, and gets sound.

• Product and scene stills used as references — 30 × 10 = 300
• Concepting, two 5-second variations per spot on Seedance 2.0 Fast at 195 credits — 16 × 195 = 3,120
• Finals, two takes per spot at 5 seconds on Kling 3.0 at 270 credits — 16 × 270 = 4,320
• Hero spot with native sound, two takes on Veo 3.1 Fast at 344 credits for 8 seconds — 2 × 344 = 688
• Voice-over, 300 characters per spot on Voice Turbo at 2 credits per 100 — 3 blocks × 2 = 6 credits each — 8 × 6 = 48

Total 8,476 credits a month.

Recommended plan — Creator, $49 for 6,000 credits. It fits with -2,476 spare: -2,476 ÷ 270 = -10 extra Kling takes when a spot refuses to work.

Here the engines do not force the plan (Kling 3.0 opens from Hobby, Veo 3.1 Fast from Hobby), so the credit total is what picks Creator. Check the gates on the model roster before doing the arithmetic — sometimes the arithmetic is moot.

Profile three — the studio doing client work

Three client pieces a month, each a finished 60 seconds built from twelve 5-second shots, delivered at 720p with narration.

Per piece:

• Previz stills — 12 × 10 = 120
• Draft pass, every shot at 4 seconds on Seedance 2.0 Mini — 12 × 60 = 720
• Finals at 5 seconds on Seedance 2.5 at 490 credits, plus a second take on the six hard shots — 12 × 490 + 6 × 490 = 8,820
• Narration, about 900 characters on Voice One — 9 blocks × 3 = 27

Per piece 9,687 credits. Three pieces, 29,061 credits a month.

Recommended plan — Studio, $149 for 20,000 credits, if the studio is one or two people, or its 40k step ($279 for 40,000 credits) if you want headroom. Client work arrives in clumps: a month with a fourth project is 38,748 credits, which the 40k step absorbs and plain Studio covers only with a top-up.

Then there is the question credits cannot answer, and it decides the plan. Every individual plan holds exactly 2 seats — Hobby, Creator and Studio alike. Paying $149 instead of $49 buys credits, speed and 30-second clips; it does not buy a third person. Three or more people rendering needs Team, $59 a seat for 7,000 credits a seat (2 to 9 seats), or Agency, $119 a seat for 16,000 credits a seat (5 to 25 seats), both on one shared wallet. Size the seats first: a three-person shop on this profile takes three Team seats, $177 a month for 21,000 credits, which covers the three pieces with -8,061 to spare.

Three things that are not credits

A plan is four things and only one is the credit drop. Any of the other three can force your hand regardless of the arithmetic:

• Seats. One on free, two on every individual plan, 2 to 9 on Team, 5 to 25 on Agency, both billed per seat. Per-member credit ceilings and rate-limit shares live on the Members tab at /dashboard/workspace.
• Engine access. Motion One, Motion Pro, Seedance 2.0 Mini and Veo 3.1 Lite are on every account, Hobby unlocks Veo 3.1 Fast, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0 Fast, Hailuo 3 Max and Wan 3.0, and Creator and above unlock everything.
• Clip length. 10 seconds free, 15 on Hobby, 20 on Creator, 30 on Studio and up — within what the engine itself serves.

Size your own number in ten minutes

1. Cost one deliverable exactly. Not an estimate — write the lines out. Drafts, finals, takes, stills, voice. The full per-minute method is in how much AI video costs.
2. Multiply by your real cadence — last month's calendar, not the one you intend to keep.
3. Add 30%. For the shot that will not resolve, the client who changes the product, the week you try a new format. If the total lands within 15% of a plan's allowance, take the next plan up — the gap between tiers is smaller than the cost of running out.

Check the result against the ladder on the pricing page, and if you are still weighing top-ups against a subscription, credits vs subscriptions does that comparison properly. Then render one deliverable end to end at the video studio and read the ledger — your own numbers beat anyone's profile.

FAQ

How many credits does a solo creator need per month?

For about twelve short posts a month (one 10-second clip each on Seedance 2.0 Fast, drafts for the uncertain half, covers and occasional voice-over), about 5,784 credits: more than a Hobby plan's 1,800, so Creator at $49 for 6,000 is the fit. Two takes on every clip instead of one pushes it to 10,464, which is Creator plus a pack, or Studio if it is every month.

What plan should a small brand doing product clips be on?

Creator, at $49 for 6,000 credits. Eight spots a month with concepting variations, two takes each on Kling and one hero with native sound comes to about 8,476 credits, which Creator covers with -2,476 to spare.

Do I need a bigger plan to add people to my workspace?

Bigger individual plans do not add people. Hobby, Creator and Studio all hold exactly 2 seats, so more money buys credits, speed and longer clips. Three or more people need Team (2 to 9 seats) or Agency (5 to 25), both billed per seat: one seat per person, all spending from one shared pool.

What happens if I run out of credits mid-month?

You buy a pack (Starter, Plus, Builder or Scale), which lands in the same wallet at the pack rate, usually a little above your plan's. The workspace owner can also turn on auto top-up, so the pack they pick is bought by itself when the balance runs low, up to a monthly cap. Since unused plan credits roll over forever, sizing slightly high costs nothing while sizing low costs a little every month.