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AI credits control how much you can use the Max and Ultra model tiers. Mini is always free.

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Plans and included credits

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Credit balance

Your credit balance is displayed in Settings > AI Credits and shows:
  • Remaining — credits available this billing period
  • Used — credits consumed so far
  • Total — your plan’s monthly credit allowance
  • Progress bar — visual indicator of usage

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Warning states

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How credits are consumed

Every message sent using a Max or Ultra model deducts credits from your balance. The exact cost depends on:
  • Model tier — Ultra costs more than Max per message
  • Message complexity — longer conversations with more context use more tokens
  • Reasoning effort — High reasoning consumes more credits than Low
Mini model messages are always free and never deduct credits.

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Per-project AI budgets

Set a monthly credit budget for individual projects to prevent any single project from consuming all your credits. Go to Project Settings > AI Budget to configure a limit. When a project hits its budget:
  • The AI switches to Mini (free) for that project
  • Other projects continue using Max/Ultra normally
  • The budget resets at the start of each billing period

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What happens when credits run out

When your account credits are fully consumed, the AI assistant enters read-only mode. You can still ask questions using the free Mini model, but Max and Ultra features are unavailable until credits reset or you upgrade your plan.

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Usage history

Track where your credits go from the Usage tab:
  • By feature — see which AI tools consume the most credits
  • By model — compare Mini vs Max vs Ultra usage
  • By team member — see per-person consumption

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Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

If you have your own API key from Anthropic, you can use it with Hiveku to bypass plan credit limits.
1

Add your key

Go to Settings > AI Credits > BYOK and paste your Anthropic API key.
2

Encryption

Your key is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage. Hiveku never stores plaintext API keys.
3

Start using it

Once added, your BYOK key is used for all AI requests. Credits from your plan are no longer deducted.
BYOK on the Hosting Only plan automatically upgrades your model access to Max tier at no additional subscription cost. You only pay for what you use through your own API key.