Credits & Billing

This page explains how credits and subscriptions work on SciClaw, what each plan includes, how top-up credits behave, and how payments, refunds, and invoices are handled.

1. What Are Credits?

Credits are SciClaw's way of measuring daily AI usage. Whenever you use capabilities such as research Q&A, web research, Library Q&A, or document processing, the system automatically deducts credits based on the actual resources consumed by the task.

Credits primarily cover the following categories of general resource consumption:

• Model calls — Used for task understanding, planning, image generation, reasoning, and output generation
• Runtime environment — Used for file processing, browser automation, code execution, and similar capabilities
• External tools & APIs — Used for third-party services such as web search, academic search, and patent search

The exact credit cost is automatically calculated based on the complexity of the task, the tools invoked, and the duration. In general, the more complex the task and the more resources it uses, the more credits it will consume.

Certain capabilities use separate resource quotas instead of credits:

• Compute quota — Used for CPU / GPU scientific computing tasks
• Storage quota — Used for file storage, results, and Library occupancy

2. Credit Types

Your SciClaw account may include the following types of credits:

3. Credit Deduction Order

When your account has multiple types of credits, SciClaw will automatically deduct them in the following order:

4. What Credits Are Used For

Credits may be consumed when you use SciClaw features such as:

• AI research Q&A and long-form reasoning
• Web research, academic search, and patent search
• Library Q&A and retrieval from uploaded files
• File parsing, document processing, and content generation
• Tool usage, skill execution, and multi-step research tasks
• Other resource-consuming platform services

Credit consumption is not calculated by a fixed number of messages, tokens, searches, API calls, or tools. The actual number of credits used may vary depending on the complexity of the task, the resources involved, the tools called, and the length of the generated result.

For example, a simple Q&A request may consume fewer credits than a task that involves web research, file analysis, Library retrieval, multiple tools, and long-form output generation.

5. Subscription Plans

SciClaw currently offers the following subscription plans in USD. Annual billing may be available at a discounted rate; the available annual price, monthly price, promotional price, and billing cycle are always subject to the checkout page.

6. Plan Benefits

Each plan unlocks a different combination of platform capabilities. "Unlimited" means there is no fixed monthly count limit under normal use. To protect service stability and prevent abuse, SciClaw may still apply fair-use, safety, or anti-abuse controls.

7. Managing Your Subscription

You can manage your subscription from your account billing page or the Stripe-hosted billing page when available.

7.1 Upgrading Your Plan

When you upgrade from a lower-tier plan to a higher-tier plan, the new plan may take effect immediately. The exact amount charged may be calculated based on the price difference, the remaining billing period, credits already used, and Stripe's proration rules.

After the upgrade is completed, SciClaw will adjust your plan credits and plan benefits according to the new plan shown on the checkout or billing page.

7.2 Canceling Your Subscription

SciClaw subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled before the next billing date.

If you cancel your subscription, the cancellation usually prevents future renewals. Your current paid subscription benefits will generally remain available until the end of the current billing cycle, unless the billing page states otherwise. Stripe also supports subscription cancellation at the end of the current period or immediate cancellation depending on the configuration.

Canceling after a charge has already been processed will not automatically refund the current billing cycle. Your subscription benefits for the current paid period will remain available until the cycle ends.

8. Top-up Credits

Top-up credits are designed for short-term usage spikes, temporary research sprints, and additional usage beyond your monthly plan credits.

Top-up credits do not upgrade your subscription plan and do not increase plan-specific limits such as storage, project space, or custom skill capacity.

Top-up credits require an active paid subscription to use. If your paid subscription expires or is canceled, any remaining top-up credits will be temporarily unavailable. They will become usable again after you reactivate an eligible paid subscription.

8.1 Credit Packs

8.2 Custom Top-ups

You may also purchase a custom amount of top-up credits.

• Minimum purchase: 50,000 credits
• Purchase step: 10,000 credits
• No bonus credits unless explicitly stated on the payment page
• The final amount and price are subject to the checkout page

If you frequently purchase top-up credits, upgrading to a higher subscription plan may be more cost-effective.

9. Storage

Each plan includes a certain amount of Library storage. If your storage usage exceeds your plan limit, SciClaw will not charge small incremental fees automatically for every upload. The system will usually handle storage in the following order:

• Use the storage included in your current plan
• Use any purchased storage expansion, if available
• If the limit is still exceeded, prompt you to clean up files, purchase an expansion, or follow the rules shown on the page

We recommend regularly deleting files, task outputs, and project materials that are no longer needed.

10. Scientific Computing Credits

Some scientific computing features, including selected computational chemistry experiences, may be free for a limited time. Future computing credits, CPU/GPU usage, or advanced scientific computing services may be charged separately.

Where separate computing credits or computing plans apply, the rules shown on the corresponding product page, checkout page, or in-product notice will prevail.

11. Payments, Taxes, and Receipts

Payments are processed through Stripe. Depending on your region, card issuer, payment method, billing address, and applicable regulations, additional taxes, VAT, GST, foreign transaction fees, or currency conversion fees may apply.

Stripe supports subscription billing, invoices, default payment methods, and automatic tax configurations depending on merchant setup and customer billing information.

After a successful payment, you may receive a payment receipt or invoice through Stripe or by email. If you need a formal invoice, tax invoice, or additional billing document, please contact SciClaw support and provide your order information, billing entity, tax information, invoice type, and receiving email.

12. Refund Policy

In general, purchased subscriptions, top-up credits, and credit packs are non-refundable unless otherwise required by law or explicitly stated on the payment page.

You may contact support for refund review in the following cases:

• Duplicate charge
• Payment succeeded but credits or subscription benefits were not delivered
• Platform-side billing error
• Other cases where applicable laws or regulations require a refund

All refund requests are subject to verification. Submitting a refund request does not guarantee approval. If a refund is approved, the refunded subscription benefits or credits may be deducted, disabled, or adjusted accordingly.

For card payments, Stripe refunds are processed back to the original payment method where supported, and the actual arrival time may depend on the payment network, issuing bank, and payment method. Stripe's refund APIs track refunds as separate refund objects under the original payment.