How credits work
Credits are the currency Roc runs on. When you ask for a new feature, a redesign, or a fix, the work Roc does is paid for in credits from your balance. This page explains what consumes credits, how charges are calculated, where credits come from, and what happens when you run low.
What consumes credits
Only AI work consumes credits. When Roc designs, writes code, or troubleshoots for you, that costs credits. Everything else is free: publishing costs nothing, hosting is billed separately through Instroc Cloud, and browsing, previewing, editing settings, and downloading your code never touch your balance.
Charges scale with the work
Instroc does not charge a fixed price per message. Charging is token-based, which means the cost of a request scales with how much work Roc actually does. Asking for a one-line copy change costs far less than asking for a whole new section of your app. Each charge has a small minimum and a cap, so a single request can never drain your balance unexpectedly.
Two things are worth knowing before you start a build. First, you need a balance of at least 2 credits to start a chat build, so a nearly empty balance will ask you to top up before Roc begins. Second, some fixes are cheap or free:
- If a build fails after one of Roc's changes, the automatic fix is free. Roc broke it, Roc fixes it, you pay nothing.
- Runtime error fixes are charged at a reduced rate, roughly a third of normal.
- Troubleshoot steps (the
/troubleshootflow) are lightweight, around half a credit each.
Where credits come from
Your balance is made of three buckets that stack together.
Plan credits arrive with your subscription each cycle, from 30 credits/month on Free up to 500 credits/month on Business. On Free, credits renew every 30 days counted from your signup date, not on calendar months; paid plans renew on the billing date. See Plans for the full ladder.
Rollover credits are unused plan credits carried into the next cycle. Rollover applies on paid plans only, lasts exactly 1 month, and is capped at your tier's monthly allocation. Free plan credits do not roll over.
Bonus credits come from credit packs and referrals, and they never expire.
Credit packs
When you need more credits without changing plans, buy a pack. Packs are available on every plan, including Free, and pack credits never expire.
| Pack | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 Credits | $5 |
| 60 Credits | $15 |
| 150 Credits | $35 |
Running out
When your balance cannot cover a request, you will see an "Insufficient AI Credits" dialog, and a banner offers the next step: "Upgrade plan" on Free, or "Buy credits" on paid plans. Nothing is lost when this happens; your project and chat history stay exactly as they were, and the build continues once you have credits again.
On the Free plan there is also a separate daily limit of 5 messages, which resets at midnight in your timezone. Hitting the daily limit is not the same as running out of credits; it simply pauses chat until the next day.
Staying ahead of it
So you are never surprised, Instroc sends usage alerts as your credits run down, at 80%, 50%, and 10% remaining.
Paid plans can also turn on auto top-up for credits, which buys more automatically when you run low. You set a monthly spend limit between $10 and $500 (the default is $50), so auto top-up can never spend more than you have approved.
If you find yourself buying packs every month, compare the math against the next plan tier. A higher plan usually gives you more credits per dollar plus extra features. Current prices are at instroc.com/pricing.
Referrals
Inviting other builders earns credits for both of you. When someone you refer subscribes to a paid plan, you receive 25 credits. The person you referred gets 10 credits at signup. You will find your referral link in the dashboard sidebar under "Invite & Earn".
Credits versus Cloud
One distinction saves a lot of confusion: credits pay for Roc's work while you build, and Instroc Cloud pays for what your published apps consume while they run. They are separate balances with separate top-ups. If your question is about hosting costs, database size, or an app that stopped responding, head to Instroc Cloud usage.