AI Credit Pricing: How to Estimate Customer Support Costs
Understand AI credit pricing with a worked support-cost example. Budget for triage, drafts, verification, and retries using your workspace's actual usage.
AI credits measure AI-powered work in a support workspace. A ticket is not a fixed unit of AI consumption: one conversation may need only a triage run, while another needs context, a draft, verification, and a follow-up. Budget for the actions your workflow performs, then compare the estimate with actual usage.
In Protodesk, teammates share the workspace balance. Reading conversations and writing manual replies do not consume AI credits. Check the estimate shown before an action and review Evelin AI → Usage for recorded consumption.
Why a ticket count is not enough
Two teams handling 500 conversations can use different amounts of AI. One might triage incoming messages and reply manually. Another might prepare drafts, check grounding, refresh context, and retry failed or unsatisfactory generations.
An auto-resolve attempt also differs from a successful resolution. A workflow can perform metered work and still hand the conversation to a person. Dividing credits only by resolved tickets hides that cost.
Record these inputs before choosing a budget:
- Monthly ticket volume and the proportion eligible for each workflow.
- The metered steps inside each workflow and their current credit estimates.
- Repeat runs, context refreshes, verification, and follow-ups.
- The plan’s included credits and any purchase options shown in Billing.
A worked AI credit budget
The following is a planning example, not a published tariff or measured customer result. Assume a workspace runs 100 triage actions, 50 draft actions, and 40 verification actions. Assume each action in this example uses one credit.
| Action | Runs | Assumed credits per run | Estimated credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triage | 100 | 1 | 100 |
| Draft preparation | 50 | 1 | 50 |
| Verification | 40 | 1 | 40 |
| Total | 190 | — | 190 |
If ten additional draft runs are needed, the estimate becomes 200 credits under the same assumptions. If those drafts use another workflow, use that workflow’s displayed estimate instead.
The general formula is sum of runs × credits per run for each distinct action. When estimating an entire workflow, include its constituent steps once. Do not add a separate verification charge if verification is already included in your workflow estimate.
Use the AI credits calculator to adjust coverage and assumed costs. Its defaults are examples; they do not guarantee how many tickets a plan will resolve.
How to compare credits with per-resolution pricing
Compare the same workload and outcome in each model. A credit estimate should include unsuccessful attempts and reviews. A per-resolution quote should specify what counts as a billable resolution, whether reopened conversations count again, and whether seats or other platform fees are additional.
Track both spend and service quality. Useful measures include AI credit usage, successful resolutions, escalations, reopened conversations, and customer feedback. A low cost per attempt is not useful if the reply is wrong or creates extra work for your team.
The helpdesk pricing calculator helps compare different charging models. Confirm current vendor terms before treating an estimate as a purchasing quote.
Keep the estimate aligned with actual usage
- Start with a small set of representative customer questions.
- Check sources and workflow scope before enabling broader automation.
- Review Evelin AI → Usage and Monitor to understand which work ran.
- Compare actual consumption with your expected action counts.
- Update assumptions before expanding to another intent or channel.
Use Settings → Billing for current plan options and available credit purchases. If the balance is insufficient, metered AI work may be unavailable; your team can continue with manual replies. Avoid repeatedly rerunning the same request without checking its source coverage and usage first.
See current pricing, the AI credits definition, and the official credit usage guide for the next step. For rollout controls, use the auto-resolve implementation checklist.
