Credits & Usage

Town measures the work your Townie does in credits. The more it reads, reasons, and acts on a request or a routine run, the more credits that work uses. Every paid plan comes with a batch of credits each month, and this page answers the questions people ask most: how credits work, where to see what’s left, what the alerts mean, and what happens when you run out.

Credits vs. chats. Paid plans meter usage in credits. The Free plan doesn’t use credits — instead it includes a set number of chats per month (a chat is one back-and-forth request to your Townie). When you’re on Free you’re bounded by that monthly chat count rather than a credit balance. See Plans & Pricing.

Want the exact credit amount for your plan? See Plans & Pricing, town.com/pricing, or open Settings → Plan ( town.com/settings/plan).

How credits work

• Each plan includes a monthly allotment. Higher plans include more credits (see Plans & Pricing).
• They refill every billing cycle. At the start of each cycle, your balance resets to your plan’s full allotment.
• They don’t roll over. Unused credits don’t carry into the next cycle — each month starts fresh at your plan’s amount.
• Work draws them down. A quick question uses very little; a routine that reads a lot of email, does research, and takes several actions uses more.

Because credits don’t roll over, there’s nothing to prorate or refund for credits you’ve already used — a new full allotment simply arrives at your next refresh.

Where do I see my credits?

This is the most common question, and the answer is one page:

• Personal plans: open Settings → Plan at town.com/settings/plan. You’ll see your remaining credits and where you are in the current cycle.
• Teams: open Team → Settings → Plan & billing to see the team’s pooled usage across all members. See Team Billing & Credits.

Your Profile (bottom-left avatar) is where Settings live — click it, then choose Settings, then Plan.

What’s using my credits?

Settings → Plan also breaks down where your credits went, so you don’t have to guess which routine to trim:

• A usage chart showing credits used per day (or cumulatively) split by usage type.
• A per-routine table showing credits by routine, so the heaviest automations are obvious at a glance.
• A timeframe picker on both — your current billing cycle or the past 30 days.

These two views are built from daily rollups: they update once a day and run through yesterday, so today’s activity isn’t included yet. Your credit balance at the top of the page is live.

Low-credit alerts

You don’t have to watch the meter — Town emails you (at your account’s email address) as you get close:

• “You’ve used 80% of your Town Credits” when you cross 80% of your monthly credits.
• Another at 90%.
• “You’ve used all your plan’s Town Credits” when you reach 100% — you’ve used your plan’s credits for the cycle.

These alerts are based on your monthly plan credits, so they track how close you are to your plan’s limit. You’ll also see a usage banner in the app. Either way, you get a nudge in time to slow down, adjust a routine, or upgrade before you run out.

What happens when I run out?

• Routines pause. Automated routines stop running until your credits refresh (or you add headroom — see below).
• On-demand chats pause too. Once your plan credits (and any promotional credits) are used up, starting new chats with your Townie is also paused — running out affects everything your Townie does, not just routines.
• On a paid plan, they resume automatically at your next monthly refresh.
• On Pro and higher, you can keep going past your allotment with pay-as-you-go overage — but only if you’ve turned it on and set a spend cap above $0 ahead of time (see below). Without an overage budget, usage pauses at zero just like on other plans. On Free and Starter there’s no overage — the way to keep going is to upgrade or wait for the next refresh.

On a trial? Trial credits don’t refill. When your trial credits run out (or the trial period ends), you move to your selected plan or drop to Free — there’s no monthly refresh to wait for. To keep your routines running, pick a paid plan. See Free Trial.

You can turn a routine off anytime, even at zero credits. What waits for credits is turning it back on (or having it run) — that resumes at your next refresh, or right away if you upgrade or enable overage.

Promotional credits

Promo credits are one-off credits we sometimes grant (goodwill, a promotion, a grace period). They behave like this:

• They work exactly like plan credits when your Townie does work — you won’t notice a difference in what they can do.
• They show as their own balance. On Settings → Plan, the main ”% left” meter tracks your monthly plan credits, and any promotional credits appear as a separate line beneath it. So the meter percentage reflects your recurring plan allowance, not your plan + promo total.
• They’re spent last. Town draws down your monthly plan credits first, then dips into promo credits only after those are gone.
• They still count toward access. Because promo credits are spendable, they keep you off pay-as-you-go overage until they’re used up (and your Townie keeps working on them after your plan credits are gone).
• They belong to one balance. If your work bills to a team, a promo balance on your own account only comes into play once the team’s pool is used up — and only if your personal plan is a paid one (not Free, and not still on its trial). See Team Billing & Credits.
• They’re one-time. Promo credits don’t refill each cycle.
• They’re not guaranteed to carry over. Promo credits are a one-off boost for a specific purpose — some carry their own expiration, and changing plans (for example, upgrading from Free to a paid plan) may not preserve a promo balance.

Seeing a promo balance separate from your plan meter is expected — the meter shows your monthly plan credits, and promo credits are listed on their own so you can tell recurring credits apart from one-time grants.

Can I move credits to someone else?

No. Credits — plan credits and promotional credits alike — belong to the account they were granted to. There’s no way to transfer a balance to another person, or from your personal account to a team.

If you want someone else (a family member, a colleague) to use Town alongside you, the supported path is a team: a Team plan has its own pooled credit balance that every member draws on. Adding someone to your team doesn’t touch your personal balance, and your promo credits stay where they are. See Team Billing & Credits.

Overage & pay-as-you-go

If you regularly need more than your plan includes, you have two options: overage or a higher plan.

• Overage is available on Pro and above. Once you’ve used your monthly credits, each additional credit bills at your plan’s flat per-credit rate. Higher plans have a lower per-credit rate.
• You have to turn it on. Overage only kicks in if you’ve set a monthly spend cap above $0 in Settings → Plan. If your cap is $0 (the default), your Townie pauses at zero credits instead of billing overage — so enable it before you run out if you want uninterrupted service.
• Set a monthly spend cap. Your cap is a hard limit on overage spending, with a live tally so you always know where you stand.
• Free and Starter don’t have overage. On those plans, the path to more credits is to upgrade.
• On a team, included credits come first — everywhere. If your work bills to a team, overage only starts once every included balance you can draw on is used up: the team’s pool and, if your personal plan is a paid one, your own plan and promo credits too. After that, the team’s overage (if a team admin enabled it) is used before your own. See Team Billing & Credits for the full order.

There’s no way to buy credits “à la carte” as a one-time top-up. If you need more, the options are overage (Pro and above) or moving to a higher plan.

How overage is charged

Overage isn’t saved up and billed once at the end of the month — it’s charged as you go:

• In $10 steps. Each time your overage usage reaches another $10, that $10 is charged to your card right away. A heavy month therefore produces several small charges rather than one large one.
• Each charge gets its own receipt. So a month with a lot of overage means a lot of receipt emails. They’re not duplicates or double charges — each one covers the next $10 of usage.
• Your plan fee stays separate. Your monthly (or annual) plan charge is its own invoice, distinct from these usage charges. Both are listed under Settings → Plan, so you can reconcile what you were charged and when.
• The running total resets each cycle. Your overage tally — and your monthly cap — start over at the beginning of every billing cycle.
• It stops at your cap. Once your credits are gone and you’ve hit your monthly limit, your Townie pauses until the next refresh or until you raise the limit.

Consolidating overage into a single monthly bill isn’t an option today. If the number of receipts is a problem, email support@corp.town.com.

Getting the most out of your credits

• Right-size your routines. A routine that runs on every incoming email uses far more than one that runs once a day. Narrow its trigger and scope so it only runs when it needs to. See Modes & Approvals and Routines.
• Use the smart email trigger for your own email routines. Instead of starting a run on every message, it runs a routine only when the email matches a condition you set — and a sender or subject filter is checked for free, before any run starts. Nothing changes automatically: ask your Townie to switch a specific routine over, or edit its trigger. Like every email trigger, it needs a plan that includes all trigger types — see Triggers. Town’s stock routines don’t offer this yet, so turning off the per-email stock routines you don’t need is still the move there.
• Control what a routine drafts. Drafting replies costs more than just labeling. If a routine is writing more drafts than you want, tune its controls: Auto-inbox can stop drafting replies (or only respond to certain email), and Decline Cold Outreach can switch to label-only or narrow which outreach it acts on.
• Turn off routines you’re not using. There’s no penalty, and you can turn them back on anytime.
• Watch a misconfigured trigger. A routine set to fire too often (or on the wrong emails) can quietly burn credits. Check its runs if usage looks high.
• Upgrade if you’re consistently over. Each higher plan includes more credits at a lower per-credit rate, so steady overage is usually a signal to move up rather than pay overage.

Which routines run on every email

Some stock routines are triggered by each incoming email out of the box, so they’re the heaviest by design — turning on several means one new email can start several runs:

• Auto-inbox
• Decline Cold Outreach
• Deal Spotter
• Invoice & Expense Logger
• Travel & Booking Organizer

Each one has settings that narrow which email it acts on — worth setting if usage is climbing faster than you expected. Routines you set up yourself only run on the trigger you give them, so a daily or weekly schedule is the cheaper pattern when you don’t need per-email handling.

Contact Research Dossier is also triggered by incoming email, but it doesn’t draw credits — it’s one of the background routines Town subsidizes.