How to track AI credits usage in a startup
Baltej Singh8 min read
AI credits usage startups need a weekly habit, not a panic when the send button dies mid-pitch. On Nautis, AI credits are the fuel the organization burns for AI features. The AI credits & usage help page (checked 31 Oct 2026) puts the live picture on the organization AI Usage tab: AI Credit Balance (Plan Credits, Bonus Credits, Used, Remaining), How credits work formulas, AI Model Settings, and Recent Usage rows by user and feature. Creation caps for modules live next door on App usage and limits. This post is a tracking playbook for founders and billing owners. It is not a pricing quote for packs; pack sizes and prices on Buy More Credits can change.
Where AI credits usage startups show up in the product
Open your organization from the sidebar, then open the AI Usage tab. Owners, Admins, and the Billing User can see the tab and buy packs. Other members can still burn credits when they use AI features; they just will not see the usage tab.
Read the AI Credit Balance card in order
- Note Plan Credits: the subscription allotment for the current billing period. These reset when the period rolls; unused plan credits do not carry.
- Note Bonus Credits: add-on purchases or admin grants. The help page states they never expire and roll until used.
- Note Used and Remaining for the period so far.
- Watch the progress bar: amber at 80% used, red at 90%.
- Read the Billing period footer so you know the reset window.
- Hit the small refresh icon after a purchase or a heavy session so the card is not stale.
If Plan Credits and Remaining show Unlimited, your plan is set that way by Nautis and the progress bar is omitted while that status holds.
Keep App Usage separate from AI Usage
App Usage counts how many things you created against plan limits (business plans, pitch decks, leads, team members, and more). AI Usage counts token and credit burn. The App Usage FAQ states that AI credits get their own tab right next to App Usage. Hitting a module creation cap is a different problem from hitting zero Remaining credits. Check both tabs before you blame "the AI."
A practical cadence for AI credits usage startups is weekly for the billing owner and same-day after any offsite, demo day rehearsal, or multi-founder workshop. Those events concentrate Co-Pilot threads, coach voice minutes, and deck scoring. Waiting for the 90% email alone is late if three people generate in parallel on Friday afternoon.
How a request becomes a credit number
Click How credits work on the AI Credit Balance header. The panel shows the conversion formulas the product uses:
- LLM (text): credits = (tokens / 1,000) x model multiplier
- STT (speech-to-text): credits = (audio seconds / 60) x multiplier
- TTS (text-to-speech): credits = (characters / 1,000) x multiplier
Examples for 1K, 5K, and 10K tokens appear for the selected model. You do not need to compute this by hand; Recent Usage logs each request. In AI Model Settings, pick AI Service and AI Model, review the rate card, and Save. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech for the AI coach stay on OpenAI Whisper and TTS; the model dropdown only changes text features. Smaller models such as GPT-4o-mini carry a lower multiplier, which stretches routine work further.
Signal on AI Usage | What it means | Founder move |
|---|---|---|
Progress bar amber (80%) | Email alert tier; burn is high | Skim Recent Usage; delay non-urgent generations |
Progress bar red (90%) | Email alert tier; close to empty | Buy a pack if a demo week is ahead, or switch to a cheaper model for drafts |
Remaining at 0 | AI features blocked; no overage charging | Wait for plan reset or buy Bonus Credits |
Unlimited labels | Plan has no credit quota while set that way | Still review Recent Usage for team habits |
What actually spends credits day to day
Recent Usage lists Date, User, Feature, Model, Input / Output / Total tokens, and Credits. Feature labels on that help page include Business Plans, Pitch Deck Analysis, Idea Validation, AI Coach Chat, AI Coach Scoring, AI Coach STT, and AI Coach TTS. Page with Previous and Next; refresh after a burst of work.
Other modules consume the same organization balance even when their own help pages describe the spend. AI Co-Pilot states each message uses AI credits and that sending is blocked when credits run out until reset or top-up. Chief of Staff help notes that briefing generation uses a very small amount of AI credits for the headline, with a plain fallback headline if credits are gone, while voice playback and chat use their own credits. For the morning briefing workflow around that spend, see How to run a daily founder briefing from one page. Routines help states every run uses AI credits except where a card shows about 0, and a run that cannot start because credits are empty counts as a failed run. Owners who schedule dense routine catalogs without watching AI Usage will see pause-after-failures patterns that look like product bugs.
Routines help also notes plan caps on how many routines you may keep at once (5 on Launch, 10 on Voyage, 15 on Fleet). That is a slot limit, separate from credits. A paused routine still counts toward the slot limit but does not spend credits on schedule until someone clicks Run now. Try it once and Run now both use credits. If you are debugging a failed routine streak, open AI Usage Remaining first; a zero balance turns start failures into noise that looks like permissions trouble.
App Usage summary tiles (Healthy under 80%, Approaching 80% to 99%, At Limit at or above 100%, Unlimited) count modules, not credits. A red At Limit on Pitch Decks blocks new deck creations even when Remaining credits are healthy. The reverse is also true: unlimited deck creations still fail to generate AI analysis when Remaining is 0. Founders who only watch one tab misdiagnose the block.
When you compare models in AI Model Settings, save the cheaper option for bulk drafting and keep the stronger model for final investor-facing edits. That split is a process choice, not a claim about quality rankings. Recent Usage will show whether the team actually followed it: look at Model column patterns after you announce the rule.
An illustrative planning week (composite only)
The week below is a composite illustrative example, not a real organization's ledger.
Monday: two founders run long AI Co-Pilot threads while refining a deck. Tuesday: Pitch Deck Analysis runs twice. Wednesday: AI Coach STT and TTS eat minutes during rehearsal. Thursday: Remaining crosses the amber band; the billing owner opens Recent Usage, sees one user owning most Coach TTS rows, and switches draft text work to a cheaper model in AI Model Settings. Friday: they buy a small Bonus Credits pack before a Monday investor meeting so Plan Credits are not the only buffer. The illustrative lesson is sequence: balance card, Recent Usage, model choice, then Buy More Credits if the calendar demands it. None of those steps require inventing a finance model; they only require opening the tabs the help pages already name.
Top-ups, alerts, and a Monday ritual
Buy More Credits is on the AI Credit Balance card. Pack cards show credit count, one-time price, cost per credit, and a MOST POPULAR ribbon on the best-value option. Select a pack, confirm the Buy button (it restates size and price), pay in Stripe, then return and refresh so Bonus Credits update. Only Owner, Admin, or Billing User can buy; other members ask an admin. Pack purchases are one-time and non-refundable per the help FAQ. Email alerts fire at 80%, 90%, and 100% usage. Treat the 80% mail as a process trigger: open Recent Usage the same day, not after the 100% mail when features already refuse to send. If Bonus Credits have not appeared a few minutes after Stripe success, refresh the balance card; the help FAQ says the page does not auto-poll and webhooks are usually fast. For a per-user roll-up beyond the Recent Usage rows, App Usage also surfaces module creation pressure by person and module, while AI Usage remains the credit ledger.
If two founders share one workspace, agree who owns the Monday ritual and who may click Buy More Credits. Without that, the person who feels the blocked Co-Pilot send may not be the person who can open Stripe. Put the Billing period end date on the same calendar as payroll or board prep so plan-credit cliffs are visible.
Monday ritual for the billing owner (ten minutes):
- Open AI Usage; refresh the balance card.
- Confirm Billing period dates and Remaining vs the week's AI-heavy meetings.
- Skim Recent Usage for surprise Features or users.
- Open App Usage Now month; note any Approaching or At Limit modules so creation caps are not confused with credit burn.
- If Remaining is thin and demos are booked, buy Bonus Credits before the week starts, not during the call.
AI credits usage startups that treat the AI Usage tab as a weekly ops check rarely discover empty Remaining mid-sentence. Plan Credits reset; Bonus Credits wait as insurance; Recent Usage names who and what spent the fuel.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I track AI credits in Nautis?
Open your organization and select the AI Usage tab. The AI Credit Balance card shows Plan Credits, Bonus Credits, Used, and Remaining. Recent Usage lists each request by user and feature. Only Owners, Admins, and the Billing User see the tab.
What is the difference between plan credits and bonus credits?
Plan credits come with your subscription and reset at the start of each billing period. Bonus credits are purchased or granted extras that never expire and roll over until used. Both appear on the AI Credit Balance card.
What happens when AI credits hit zero?
AI features are blocked until the billing period resets or someone buys a top-up pack. There is no overage charging. Email alerts also fire at 80%, 90%, and 100% usage.
Is App Usage the same as AI Usage?
No. App Usage tracks how many items you created against module limits. AI Usage tracks credit and token burn. You can hit a creation cap with credits left, or hit zero credits with creation room still open.
Sources
- Nautis AI credits & usage help. Checked on October 31, 2026.
- Nautis App usage and limits help. Checked on October 31, 2026.
- Nautis AI Co-Pilot help. Checked on October 31, 2026.
- Nautis Chief of Staff help. Checked on October 31, 2026.
- Nautis Routines help. Checked on October 31, 2026.
Baltej Singh is a serial entrepreneur, technology leader, and Founder & CEO of Nautis and DemoVexa, with over 16 years of experience building software products, SaaS platforms, and startups. Previously the Co-Founder & CTO of SanchiConnect, he has worked extensively in the DeepTech startup ecosystem, connecting with 200+ venture capital firms and supporting a network of 4,000+ startups. Passionate about AI, automation, and entrepreneurship, he focuses on building innovative products that solve real-world problems and help businesses grow.
