Understanding Usage & Credits

How Koji's Credit System Works

Koji uses a credit-based usage model. Every meaningful interaction on the platform consumes credits from your allocation. This system ensures you only pay for quality research — thanks to the quality gate, low-quality conversations are always free.

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Credit Costs by Action

These costs apply only when the conversation passes the quality gate (scores 3 or above on a 1-5 scale). Conversations that score below 3 are completely free.

Structured questions (scale, choice, ranking, yes/no) are included in every interview at no extra credit cost. Whether your interview uses open-ended questions, structured questions, or a mix of both, the credit cost remains the same — 1 credit for text, 3 for voice.

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Credits by Plan

For a detailed feature breakdown, see the Plan Comparison Guide.

What this means in practice

With the Insights plan (29 credits/month), you could run:

• 29 text interviews, or
• 9 voice interviews + 2 text interviews, or
• Any mix that adds up to 29 credits

With the Interviews plan (79 credits/month), you could run:

• 79 text interviews, or
• 26 voice interviews, or
• 20 voice interviews + 19 text interviews
• Plus unlimited report refreshes (free on this plan)

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Study Limits

All plans include unlimited studies. There is no cap on the number of active studies you can run on any plan, including Free. Credits govern your interview volume, not your study count.

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When Credits Reset

• Paid plans (Insights, Interviews, Enterprise): Credits reset on your billing anniversary — the date your subscription started. For example, if you subscribed on March 10, your credits reset on the 10th of each month.
• Free plan: Your 10 starter credits are a one-time grant. They do not reset monthly.
• Bonus credits (from admin grants or promotions): These do not reset and remain available until used or expired.

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Tracking Your Usage

You can monitor your credit usage from the Dashboard:

1. Navigate to your Dashboard
2. Your current credit balance and usage are displayed prominently
3. View a breakdown of credits consumed by study
4. Track how many billable conversations you've had this period

Usage Tracking Details

Koji tracks these metrics per billing period:

• Studies created — count of new studies
• Interviews completed — total conversations
• Billable conversations — conversations that passed the quality gate and consumed credits
• Report refreshes — report generation events

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Managing Your Budget

Set an Overage Cap

On paid plans, you can set a maximum overage limit to prevent unexpected charges. This controls how many additional credits beyond your included allocation you're willing to pay for. Learn more about how overage billing works.

• Set the cap to 0 to hard-stop at your included credits
• Set a specific number to allow controlled overage
• Leave it unlimited for uninterrupted research

Tips for Efficient Credit Use

1. Use text interviews when voice isn't necessary — text costs 1 credit vs. 3 for voice
2. Let the quality gate work for you — low-quality conversations are automatically free
3. Batch your report refreshes — collect more responses before refreshing to get more value per refresh
4. Add structured questions to interviews — get quantitative data alongside qualitative depth at no extra credit cost
5. Consider annual billing — save 2 months free on any paid plan

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What Happens When You Hit Your Limit

You'll receive notifications as you approach your credit limit so you can plan accordingly.

Further reading on the blog

• User Research: The Complete Guide to Understanding Your Users (2025) — Learn what user research is, why it matters, and how to conduct it effectively. Discover how AI tools like Koji are transforming the researc

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