What are credits, and when do they reset?

Surfer's credit system in a nutshell

Aleksandra Wojcik avatar
Written by Aleksandra Wojcik
Updated over a week ago

Depending if you are billed monthly or yearly, your limits will work differently. For more information about pricing and plans, read this article. We highly recommend going over our pricing for more information about different plans and their credit limits.

What are credits, and which tools require them?

Credits are virtual tokens that are required to use some of our tools. Credit limits are determined by the plan you are on.

Currently, Surfer's credit system is utilized primarily in the Content Editor. Each subscription comes with a fixed monthly or annual quota of content editor credits.

Credits on Add-ons

Apart from the standard Content Editor credits that come with each plan, you can also purchase add-ons that will allow you to unlock credits on other tools; Audit and SERP analyzer.

At the moment, Audit credits can be unlocked for $49 a month, and you will then receive 100 Audit credits a month. SERP Analyzer credits can be unlocked for $29 a month, and you will then receive 100 SERP Analyzer credits a day. Learn more about Surfer add-ons here!

Any Content Editor created from Keyword Research or Grow Flow will also take from your monthly or annual Content editor credit pool.

Keyword Research does not require any credits but is under a limit of 100 queries per tool for account daily. Daily limits reset every day at midnight (00:00) in the timezone you purchased your Surfer subscription, regardless if you are on a monthly or yearly plan.

When do credits reset on monthly plans?

Monthly limits for Content Editor reset every month on the same day you made the original purchase, while Audit credits reset on the same day you purchased the add-on.

For example: if you bought Surfer on the 4th of December, the next charge and limit reset would take place on the 4th of January.

You should see your credit usage and how many you have left in the tool dashboard.

Remember that unused credits do not roll over from one month to another, so make sure to manage your pool wisely.

When do credits reset on annual plans?

If you have subscribed for a full year at Surfer, you will be given your whole content editor credit pool upfront. This will give you more flexibility and let you organize your work a little bit more efficiently! That being said, your credit limits will restore every year.

The only exception is with Audit add-ons since we bill this on a monthly basis. So if you purchase an annual plan and Audit add-on, you will receive yearly content editor credits but your Audit credit pool of 100 will reset every month on the day you purchased the add-on.

Example: Essential monthly plan includes 45 Content Editor credits per month. Users with a yearly subscription would get 180 Content Editor credits to use throughout the year.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Content Editor overage credits do not count towards your monthly or annual limit. Users will be charged separately for each credit used over the monthly or annual limit. Learn more about Content Editor overage usage here.

If you upgrade to a higher plan mid-cycle, you will be upgraded immediately, and your billing date will also reset immediately.

How to use the credits?

Content Editor allows you to run a single or multi-keyword analysis. You can also run a batch query.

Single-keyword analysis in Content Editor requires one credit only:

Multi-keyword analysis in Content Editor requires one credit only as well:

The difference begins when we want to run queries in a batch. Batch queries require one credit for each line of keywords, meaning that if you see "Create 3 Content Editors", that means you will spend 3 credits on those queries. 1 line can include multiple keywords. Creating batch queries will not be available to use for content overage usage.

The Audit does not allow you to run a multi-keyword analysis - putting more than 1 keyword will work as running a batch query (1 keyword = 1 Audit query), so be careful here as you may accidentally spend a few of your credits.

Do you still need help? Don't worry! You can contact us at [email protected] or via live chat by clicking the icon in the bottom-right corner.

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