Credits are how you pay for AI work on Tesana. Every time the AI builds, edits, or fixes something in your game, it spends real computing power — credits meter that work.

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The one rule that explains everything

You are billed for actual AI work, after the work happens. There are no flat per-prompt fees and no pre-charges. When a generation finishes (or stops for any reason), Tesana measures what the AI actually did and charges that amount — nothing more.
You never pick a model or think about tokens. Tesana chooses the best model for every run and translates the work into credits for you.

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Why some prompts cost more than others

Two prompts that look similar can cost very different amounts, because the cost depends on how much work the AI actually did:
  • Project size — on every prompt the AI re-reads your project (code, assets, recent changes) to understand it before acting. A brand-new game is a small read; a mature game is a lot more context. Tesana caches that context so re-reading is cheap, but deeper projects still cost more per prompt than fresh ones.
  • Scope of the request — “make the coins spin” touches one file; “add a save system, a shop, and three new levels” is a long session with lots of code written.
  • Run mode — a plan is a small fraction of the build it precedes; a Loop keeps working until the budget you set is used.
The cheapest way to build is to iterate in small, specific steps. One focused change per prompt costs less — and produces better results — than giant “do everything” prompts that force the AI into a very long session.

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Where your credits come from

Your balance is made up of three kinds of credit, and they are spent soonest-to-expire first so nothing evaporates unused:
  1. Free daily credits — a fresh allowance every day, on every plan including Free. Spent first, because they reset tomorrow whether you used them or not.
  2. Bonus and top-up credits — one-time purchases and grants such as referral rewards.
  3. Monthly plan credits — your subscription grant (e.g. 2,500/month on Pro). Resets every billing cycle.
The full ordering is on Plans & top-ups.

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Free daily credits

Every account gets a daily credit allowance you don’t pay for, with a monthly ceiling. It refills at 00:05 UTC and does not stack — today’s allowance replaces yesterday’s rather than adding to it, so there is no point saving it up. The allowance is enough to try Tesana and make small changes. It is deliberately not enough for heavy daily building — that is what a plan is for.
Daily credits are on top of a subscription, not instead of one. A paid plan’s monthly grant is added to the daily allowance, and because daily credits are spent first, they only ever displace allowance you would otherwise have lost.
Your exact allowance and ceiling are shown under Plans & credits in the sidebar.

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Out of credits on the Free plan

A free account with nothing left to spend can still describe a new game and get a plan for it, up to a daily limit. Building it requires credits — a plan or a top-up.

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Balance, overdraft, and stopping

Because billing happens after the work, a big generation can carry your balance past zero — you’re never billed for more than the AI actually did, but the final charge for an in-flight run can land below zero:
  • You need a positive balance to start a run.
  • Mid-run, the engine tracks spend against your remaining balance and winds the session down gracefully as it approaches your budget, rather than cutting off mid-thought.
  • If a run does finish past zero, your balance goes negative and new runs are blocked until credits cover it. See Negative balance.

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Seeing where credits went

Every charge is written to a per-prompt ledger you can inspect any time — which prompt, which game, how much work the AI did, and your balance after. That’s the Usage page at tesana.ai/settings/usage.

Plans & top-ups

Subscription tiers, monthly grants, and top-up bundles

Reading your usage

How to audit any charge on your account