Do AI Tool Credits Roll Over? Checklist for Resets, Top-Ups, API Credits, and Team Plans

Because these rules vary so much, the safe assumption is that included credits are "use it or lose it" unless the official page says otherwise. This guide shows how current vendors handle rollover, explains the different credit types, and gives practical strategies for not paying for credits you never use. Examples come from official pricing and help pages read between September 27 and October 5, 2026. Perplexity credits, HeyGen pricing, Runway pricing, Midjourney GPU speed.

How Current Vendors Handle Rollover

Two vendors stand out. HeyGen's annual plan lets credits accumulate until renewal, and Runway's purchased credits never expire, so neither punishes uneven monthly usage as much as a strict monthly reset.

The Five Kinds of Credits

Almost every AI tool's credits fit one of five categories, each with typical behavior.

Monthly plan credits are the allowance that comes with a subscription and refreshes each billing cycle. They usually reset to the plan amount, so unused credits are lost. Midjourney's Fast time, VEED's monthly credits and Perplexity Max's 10,000 monthly credits all work this way. Annual subscribers often still refresh monthly: Perplexity, for example, refreshes annual subscribers' credits on the same day each month.

Annual pools grant a year's allowance up front or let monthly grants accumulate within the year. Synthesia's Starter and Pro plans grant 15,000 and 72,000 credits a year, VEED's annual plans list credits per year, Rask's yearly plans keep minutes available rather than expiring them monthly, and HeyGen's annual credits accumulate until renewal. These suit seasonal work.

Short rollover windows let unused credits survive one or two extra cycles. HeyGen's monthly plans carry credits over for one month, Runway Max for one month, and OpusClip Pro for one or two months depending on billing. On monthly billing, Lovable's Pro and Business credits roll over and expire two months after issue (Lovable credits explained).

Purchased top-ups are bought separately when you run out. Their expiry varies widely: Runway's purchased credits never expire, Perplexity's last until used but expire after a year of not using Computer, and Krea's compute packs last 90 days.

Promotional bonuses are one-time grants for signing up or upgrading. They are usually consumed first and expire quickly. Perplexity's sign-up bonuses for Pro and Max expire 30 days after they are granted and are one per account.

The table below summarizes how long each kind of credit typically lasts, with examples from the vendors above. Use it as a starting point and confirm the exact rule for each tool you pay for, because the same vendor can treat plan, bonus and purchased credits differently.

Order of Consumption Matters

When several kinds of credit sit in one balance, the order in which they are used decides how much you lose. Perplexity spends bonus credits first, then monthly credits, then purchased credits. That order is customer-friendly: the credits most likely to expire are used first, and purchased credits, which last longest, are kept in reserve. If a vendor spent purchased credits before monthly ones, you could lose monthly credits at renewal while having burned through credits that would have lasted. Check the vendor's help page for consumption order before buying top-ups.

What Happens When You Cancel or Change Plans

Cancellation usually ends included credits. Perplexity says monthly credits end when the plan ends, while purchased credits stay in your account for up to a year, and none of them can be redeemed for cash. Upgrades and downgrades can reset balances too, so check before changing plans mid-cycle, especially if you hold a large rollover bank. Annual plans paid up front rarely refund unused credits.

What Unused Credits Really Cost

Expired credits are money spent on nothing, and the amounts add up. A Midjourney Standard subscriber paying $30 a month for 15 Fast hours who uses only 10 hours wastes a third of the Fast allowance, about $10 a month at $2 per Fast hour, although Relax time softens the loss. A Perplexity Max subscriber who uses 6,000 of 10,000 monthly credits lets 4,000 lapse, which at 100 credits per dollar is $40 of Computer usage.

Rollover windows reduce that waste but do not remove it. On a monthly HeyGen plan, credits carried over for one month still expire if the next month is also quiet. For teams, the waste multiplies by seats: ten members each leaving a quarter of their allowance unused is the same as paying for two and a half seats that nobody uses. Tracking expired credits for a quarter is the quickest way to see whether you are on the right tier.

Which credit structure fits steady, seasonal, spiky, occasional, rising or team usage

How to Avoid Wasting Credits

Size the plan to your typical month, not your peak. Cover peaks with top-ups that do not expire, or with a temporary upgrade.

Use expiring credits first. If the vendor does not enforce a sensible order, schedule big jobs before renewal to use credits that would reset, and keep purchased credits for later.

Set a renewal reminder. A week before renewal, check your balance and decide whether to spend remaining credits on useful work such as drafts, variations or archive processing.

Avoid stacking expiring top-ups. Buying a 90-day pack when you already have monthly credits left can mean both expire unused.

Prefer annual pools for seasonal teams. Marketing teams with launch cycles often waste monthly credits in quiet months; an annual pool smooths that out.

Credits Across Apps and APIs

Do not assume credits move between a vendor's app and its API. Perplexity bills its API separately from Pro and Max subscriptions, and Murf's API credit is separate from its Studio plans. Kling's API is sold as prepaid packages that expire after 180 days, unlike its app plan credits. When you budget for both, treat each balance as its own pool with its own expiry.

Teams and Pooled Credits

Team plans differ in whether credits belong to the workspace or to each member. Krea's Business plan shares 80,000 compute units across up to 50 members, with per-member spend limits. Perplexity's Enterprise plans give each member a monthly allocation, and admins can set caps, so a member can be blocked even when the organization pool shows credits. Pooled credits waste less, because light users' leftovers cover heavy users, but they need admin limits to stop one person consuming the whole balance.

Questions to Ask Before Buying

Ask the vendor, or check its help center, for six answers: do included credits roll over and for how long; do annual plans grant a yearly pool or monthly refreshes; when do purchased credits expire; in what order are credit types consumed; what happens to each balance on cancellation, upgrade or downgrade; and are credits shared across a team or tied to individuals. If the answers are not published, assume no rollover and price the plan on what you will use each month. For related guidance, see AI credits vs tokens vs minutes and how AI video credits work.

Final Check

Total up your last three months of usage, compare it with the plan allowance, and look at how much expired. If more than a quarter of your credits expire regularly, move down a tier and cover peaks with non-expiring top-ups. If you buy top-ups most months, move up a tier. If your usage is seasonal, choose an annual plan whose credits accumulate.