{% hint style="info" %}
**This screen shows your current available balance and options to buy one-time AI credits:**
{% endhint %}
***
**Your Balance:**\
Displays the number of AI credits remaining\
Example: `15000 credits` on `5/30/2025`
**Credit Usage Graph:**\
A sparkline visualizing your credit usage or refill history. A spike usually means a purchase or sudden increase in usage
**Buy One-Time Credits:**\
You can purchase additional credits if you run low:
* **500k credits** → **$5.00**
* **1M credits** → **$9.00**
## **How to** purchase Credits
After selecting the number of credits (500k / 1M) and clicking the "Continue" button, you purchase credits for the artificial intelligence chatbot:
it allows you to:
* Chat with the BigBeluga AI assistant
* Use longer conversations without limits
***
## **How the Credit System Works**
BigBeluga uses a **token-based AI system**, where credits are consumed based on how much data is sent to or from the chatbot (not just message count).
### **Key Points:**
One "credit" = roughly **1 token**.
Tokens are used **per message**, but also include:
* **Context/history** from previous messages
* **Your question**
* **The AI’s full response**
**More message history = more tokens used per request.**
***
## **How Much Do You Get?**
* **500,000 tokens (\~$5)** ≈ **250 AI messages**
* **1,000,000 tokens (\~$9)** ≈ **500 AI messages**
(*Assuming one message + reply consumes \~2,000 tokens on average*)
***
## **Summary for Users**
* Your credit balance shows how much AI interaction time you still have.
* When you're chatting with the AI, every message costs credits based on size + context.
* You can top up anytime with one-time purchases.
* 500k tokens should last an average user quite a while if they keep chats concise.
Let me know if you want this explanation written in a more casual or onboarding-friendly style for users.
