Understanding Credits
How Starlight's usage-based credit system works.
Starlight uses a credit-based system. Every AI-powered action costs a set number of credits, and your plan determines how many credits you get each month.
Credit Costs
| Action | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Search | 12 | Run a new lead or company search |
| Load more results | 8 | Fetch the next page of search results |
| AI search enhance | 2 | AI-powered query refinement |
| Draft with AI | 4 | AI-draft personalized outreach for a lead |
| Preview with AI | 4 | Preview a draft for a recipient in the Outbound builder |
| Redraft with AI | 4 | Regenerate a draft with new direction |
| Enhance brief | 2 | AI-polish your campaign brief |
| Sequence email | 2 | Send an email through a campaign |
| Email verification | 1 | Verify an address before sending |
| AI reply draft | 5 | Generate an AI response to a prospect's reply |
| AI LinkedIn reply | 5 | Generate an AI response to a LinkedIn reply |
| Meeting notes | 5 | Generate AI meeting notes |
| Website scan | 3 | Scan a prospect's website for context |
| LinkedIn scan | 3 | Scan a prospect's LinkedIn for context |
| Research scan | 2 | Per-recipient web research during drafting |
| LinkedIn DM | 2 | Send a LinkedIn direct message via the extension |
| LinkedIn message | 2 | Send a post-connection message or InMail via the extension |
| LinkedIn connection request | 2 | Send a connection request via the extension |
| LinkedIn like | 1 | Like a prospect's post via the extension |
| LinkedIn comment | 2 | Comment on a prospect's post via the extension |
| Contact export | 2 | Export a contact to CSV or CRM |
| Sales intelligence | 4 | Get AI sales intelligence insights |
| Agent tool call | 1 | Each action the AI chat agent runs, added to that action's own cost |
Chatting with the AI agent is free — ask questions and plan as much as you like. You're only charged when the agent takes an action: each tool call costs 1 credit plus that action's own cost (for example, a lead search the agent runs is 12 + 1).
Checking Your Balance
Your current credit usage is always visible in the sidebar at the bottom left. It shows a progress bar with credits used out of your total allowance.
For a per-charge history of every credit spent, open Settings → Credits. It shows a running balance, your recent usage trend, and each transaction with the action that caused it. Plan-level usage lives in Settings → Plans & Billing.
Monthly Reset
Credits reset every 30 days from when your billing cycle started. Unused credits do not roll over to the next month.
Running Low on Credits
When your credits are running low, you'll receive a Credits Low notification. You can:
- Upgrade your plan for more monthly credits — see Plans & Pricing
- Wait for reset — credits refresh at the start of your next billing cycle
What Happens When Credits Run Out
When you're out of credits:
- AI-powered actions (search, drafting, meeting notes) will show an upgrade prompt
- Already-scheduled messages will remain queued and send when credits are available
- Manual actions (viewing contacts, reading inbox) continue to work normally