Token & economy
Credits & tiers
How credits, the Pro and Max tiers, and per-message pricing fit together.
Credits are how you pay for what ashao does. They're priced in dollars and spent per action, so usage stays predictable no matter what any token is doing on a given day. Sign up and you start with a balance to explore.
What a credit is
One credit is worth $0.01 — a flat, dollar-denominated unit. Every paid action quotes its cost in credits up front, so you always know what a message or an image will cost before you run it. New accounts are granted 500 credits (about $5.00 of usage) to get started.
The chat tiers
Chat comes in two tiers. They differ in the class of worker that handles your job and what you pay per message.
| Tier | Per message | Routes to |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | 10 cr · $0.10 | Browser workers · WebGPU |
| Max | 15 cr · $0.15 | Cloud + native workers |
- Pro — 10 credits per message, served first by browser WebGPU workers. The default for everyday agent chat.
- Max — 15 credits per message, routed to cloud and native workers for heavier jobs.
You only pay for what runs
Credits for a message are charged when you send it. If you're not signed in, you can still try a message on the network — see the chat.Image generation
Creating an image costs 20 credits ($0.20), regardless of style or aspect ratio. Images are private to your own gallery and aren't kept on the network beyond it.
Checking and topping up
Your live balance is shown in the app nav and is available programmatically:
GET /api/credits
Returns the current user's balance as { credits }. The chat client refreshes this after each completed message so the nav stays in sync.
Credits vs. $ASHAO
Credits are for using ashao; $ASHAO is for owning it. You never need the token to send a message, and you never spend the token on inference.