Depending on whether 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, and they have a specific limits, depending on what plan you purchased. Each subscription comes with a fixed monthly or annual quota of credits that you can use.
Currently, credits are mostly used in our Content Editor tool. However, with the Scale AI plan, you will also get fixed Surfer AI credit quotas.
When do credits reset on monthly plans?
Monthly limits for Content Editor in plans (and AI credits included in Scale AI) 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 a monthly subscription for your preferred Surfer Plan 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.
When do credits reset on annual plans?
If you have subscribed for a full year at Surfer, you will be given all of your Content Editor (and AI credits if you're on Scale AI) credits 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 be restored 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.
Examples:
The Scale monthly plan includes 100 Content Editor credits per month. Users with a yearly subscription would get 1200 Content Editor credits to use throughout the year.
The Scale AI monthly plan includes 100 Content Editor credits and 10 AI credits per month. Users with a yearly subscription would get 1200 Content Editor credits and 120 AI credits to use throughout the year.
❗❗❗ IMPORTANT REMINDERS ❗❗❗
Remember that unused credits do not roll over from one month or year to another, so make sure to manage your pool wisely.
Please note that there is a significant difference between on-demand AI credits and those included in Scale AI plan. Credits in Scale AI renew based on the billing cycle, whereas standalone AI credits (including packages) do not expire in the same manner. More information about this subject can be found here.
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.
Credits on Add-ons
Apart from the Content Editor and AI credits, you can also purchase add-ons that will allow you to unlock credits on other tools, such as 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. Learn more about Surfer add-ons here!
Any Content Editor created from Keyword Research (or Grow Flow) will also take one credit from your monthly or annual credit pool.
Keyword Research does not require any credits but is under a limit of 100 queries per tool for each account daily. Daily limits reset every day at midnight (00:00) in the timezone in which you purchased your Surfer subscription, regardless of whether you are on a monthly or yearly plan.
*Audit is included in the Scale/Scale AI plans and does not have to be purchased separately.
How do I 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 always reach out to us at [email protected] or via live chat by clicking the icon in the bottom-right corner.