Estimate credit usage for a project

Estimate how many credits your character uses per turn and per month with the Convai credit calculator, so you can choose a plan that fits.

Estimate what a project will use in credits before you choose a plan, with the credit calculator and a few numbers about how people will talk to your character. At the end, you have a cost per turn, a monthly total, and a plan that covers it.

Before you start

• The language model and voice your character uses, and whether it uses long-term memory, a knowledge bank, or animation
• A typical conversation: how many turns it has, and roughly how long the end user and the character each speak per turn
• How many conversations you expect in a month

If you are new to credits, read How Convai credits work first. It explains each component the calculator lists.

Estimate the cost of one turn

The credit calculator estimates one turn at a time, which it calls an interaction.

1

Open the credit calculator

Go to the credit calculator.

2

Choose your character's services

Under AI Brain, select your character's language model in AI Model. Under Senses, select the speech recognition service in Voice Input. Under Expression, select the voice in Voice Output and the animation in Animation.

3

Turn on memory and knowledge if you use them

Turn on Memory and Knowledge only if your character uses long-term memory or a knowledge bank. Each one adds to the cost of every turn.

4

Describe a typical turn

Set Prompt Size to the number of tokens the language model reads per turn, and Response Size to the length of the character's reply in tokens. The calculator counts about four characters of text as one token.

Set the seconds next to Voice Input to how long the end user speaks, and the seconds next to Voice Output to how long the character speaks.

Prompt Size includes the character's instructions and the conversation so far, so base it on a turn from the middle of a typical conversation rather than the first one. For a reference point, the example in How Convai credits work uses 4,000 input tokens.

5

Read the cost per turn

The calculator shows the cost of each row next to it, adds the Platform Fee, and shows the total credits for one interaction. The row with the highest cost is where a different model or voice saves the most.

The calculator shows each turn's exact cost. Convai rounds each turn's total up to the next whole credit, so round the calculator's figure up before you multiply it.

Estimate a month of usage

Multiply the credits per turn by the number of turns in a typical conversation, then by the number of conversations you expect in a month.

The following example uses the two configurations from How Convai credits work, with 12 turns per conversation and a Professional plan's 99,000 monthly credits:

Estimate	ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 voice	Convai TTS (managed) voice
Credits per turn	19	8
Credits per 12-turn conversation	228	96
Conversations that 99,000 credits cover	434	1,031

These figures cover turns only. Add the session duration charges the calculator leaves out:

• Session duration. Every connected session is charged for its whole length, including silent time. To measure it, hold one representative test conversation with your character in the Playground, then read its Duration credits on the Credits tab. Multiply that by the number of sessions you expect in a month.

Choose a plan

Under How Many Interactions Do You Get?, the credit calculator shows how many interactions each plan covers at your cost per turn. Compare that with your monthly total, including session duration.

To see the plans available to your account, select your profile avatar in the top-right corner of the Playground, then select Pricing.

Leave headroom above your estimate. Unused credits expire at renewal, but running out stops a conversation immediately, and Convai does not support overages.

Compare the estimate with real usage

Once your character is live, check the estimate against real sessions. In the Convai Playground, select Project Settings in the sidebar, open the Credits tab, and review the Session Usage panel. For each session, Turn credits and Duration credits show what it used.

If real usage is higher than your estimate, check Prompt Size first. Long character instructions and long conversations raise the input tokens on every turn.

Next steps

Credit balance and billing cycleHow Convai credits work