Credit grants
How a team pays for its members' calls, from issuing a grant to what the member sees.
A grant is not a transfer. The team's credits stay the team's until a member spends them: the member's personal organization draws them a few at a time as it needs them, and whatever it hasn't spent goes back. A grant goes from a team (a shared organization) to a member's personal organization, never the other way round.
Issuing a grant
The team's owner manages grants under Account → Organization → Grants. Other members see a note that only the owner can manage them.
There are two kinds, with the same terms:
- Grants by role (New rule, then Create rule): every member holding one of the ticked roles (owner, admin, manager, member), now and whenever someone joins or moves into one.
- Grants to a member (New grant, then Issue grant): one member, picked by name or email. A member without a personal organization can't be picked.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Credits | The limit, up to 100,000 credits |
| Resets | Every month (the limit starts over on the 1st, UTC) or Never (one-off allowance) (the limit is the total, ever) |
| Modules | Up to 50 modules and gateways the credits may be spent on. Pick none for any module |
How the credits reach the member
The member draws up to 5 credits of a grant at a time. The next 5 are drawn when they hold less than 1 credit of it, or at once when a call costs more than they hold. Credits out with a member leave the team's balance until they're spent or come back.
Granted credits are spent before the member's own plan credits and purchases, and credits from a grant limited to modules pay for nothing else (see the order credits are used in). A grant that isn't limited also pays for the member's RPC blocks past the fair-use ceiling, so a member never needs a plan of their own.
Used this period is what a member has drawn this period less what came back: an upper bound on what they spent, since part of it may still be unspent in their hands. It's listed per member under Grants to a member, and for a rule in the list its member count opens.
The reserve
The Reserve is kept back from every grant: members draw only from the team's own credits above it, shown as "n in reserve · n left to grant". When there is nothing above it, the grant reads Waiting for credits and the member keeps spending what they already hold. It draws again on its own after the next purchase, the next month of plan credits, or a lower reserve.
When unspent credits come back
| What happens | The grant | The member's unspent credits |
|---|---|---|
| The month ends (monthly grant) | Its limit starts over | Come back |
| The owner pauses the grant or its rule | Nothing more is drawn until it's resumed | Come back |
| The owner revokes the grant or its rule | Ends for good; a call already in flight is still charged | Come back |
| The member is removed, leaves, or deletes their account | Every grant the team made them is revoked | Come back |
| The member moves to a role a rule doesn't name | That rule's grant is revoked; grants to a member stay | Come back |
| The team is deleted | Every grant is revoked | Come back |
| The credits they were drawn from expire, such as a plan month | Stands | Expire with them |
A refund of the team's own purchase waits until every grant is revoked, paused ones included. See Refunds.
What the member sees
On their personal organization's Credits page the balance says "n of them from organizations", and each grant's credits are listed as From an organization, with the modules they're limited to and when they expire. With their personal organization active, the Grants page lists every grant they receive: who from, the limit, the modules, what they hold On hand, and a status such as "Paused by Testifer" or "Waiting for credits from Testifer".
Example
Testifer has 400 purchased credits and a reserve of 100, so 300 are left to grant. Its owner
creates a rule: 50 credits every month to every member, and Testifer has four.
- Each member draws 5 credits within seconds. Testifer's balance shows 380.
- Ana spends 12 credits in March. She has drawn 15, in three draws of 5, and holds 3. Her row shows 15 used.
- On 1 April (UTC) her 3 unspent credits expire from her balance and go back to Testifer, and she can draw 50 again.
- Months later Testifer's own credits are down to 100. The next time Ana needs more, her grant reads Waiting for credits, and her calls are paid from her own credits. Testifer buys 200 more and her grant draws again.