Credits
What a call costs, how the charge is worked out, and how to cap it.
Manifold is paid for in credits. 100 credits are one US dollar. Most calls spend some, a few tools are free, and each result says what it cost in meta.credits_charged.
#What calls cost
Each tool's cost is a formula on what you ask for: the rows, the pages, the engines. The tool's description states it, so your agent knows the price before it calls. Some common calls:
| Call | Tool | Credits | Dollars |
|---|---|---|---|
| The top 10 Google results for a keyword | seo_get_serp | 1 credit | $0.01 |
| 100 keyword ideas with their metrics | seo_search_keywords | 10 credits | $0.10 |
| A domain overview | seo_get_domain_overview | 5 credits | $0.05 |
| 1,000 backlinks | seo_get_backlinks | 25 credits | $0.25 |
| One prompt on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity | aeo_run_ai_answers | 16 credits | $0.16 |
| A 100-page technical crawl | seo_run_technical_crawl | 3 credits | $0.03 |
| A person's work email, found | leads_get_email | 6 credits | $0.06 |
| A person's work email, not found | leads_get_email | 1 credit | $0.01 |
| A TikTok profile | tiktok_get_profile | 1 credit | $0.01 |
Each tool's page lists its cost. These are free: get_task, seo_get_page, aeo_get_site_readiness, and any call with dry_run: true.
#How a charge is worked out
- Estimate. The server prices the call at the most it can cost, for example the full
limityou asked for. - Hold. It holds that many credits on your balance. If the balance is too low, the call stops with
InsufficientCreditsand costs nothing. - Settle. After the call it charges for what came back, such as the rows returned, and never more than the estimate. The rest of the hold is released.
A call that reaches a provider costs at least 1 credit, even when the provider has nothing (NoData). A call that fails because a provider is down, the input is bad or too many of your calls are running costs nothing. See Errors and limits.
An answer from the cache skips the hold and costs 25% of the live price, rounded up, with a minimum of 1 credit. An answer your workspace already paid for is free until it expires.
#Cap what a call can spend
Calls spend credits without a confirmation step, so give your agent a budget:
max_creditsrefuses any call whose estimate is higher. The result isBudgetExceededwith the estimate, and nothing is charged.dry_run: truereturns onlymetawith the estimate. It costs nothing.
{"keyword": "crm for startups", "depth": 100, "max_credits": 5}#Watch your usage
The app's Usage page lists every call that was charged or served from the cache, with the tool, the target and the credits. The dashboard shows a month of credits and your balance. Calls that failed are not listed, because they cost nothing.
#Run out, and top up
When a call is not answered from the cache and the balance is below its estimate, the call returns InsufficientCredits, and your agent should stop and tell you. A cache hit takes no hold, so it can still be served on a low balance. Buy credits or change plan on the app's Billing page. See Plans and top-ups.