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AIWA uses credits to measure AI-powered work. Whenever AIWA performs work on your behalf, such as building an application, making an edit, creating a plan, debugging an issue, or generating an image, credits are used. The amount depends on the type of work being performed. Think of credits as your AIWA building capacity. Credits aren’t a limit on how many projects you can create, and they aren’t a charge for keeping your applications online. They’re primarily used when you ask AIWA to do AI-powered work.

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The Simple Version

When you ask AIWA to do something:
Different actions require different amounts of work, so they can use different amounts of credits. For example:
A complete application build is typically around 50 credits. The exact amount can vary depending on the work required.

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What Is a Credit?

A credit is AIWA’s unit for AI-powered product-development work. Instead of showing you:
  • Model tokens
  • AI provider usage
  • Infrastructure operations
  • Internal generation steps
  • Different AI model costs
AIWA turns that complexity into a simpler credit system. You see:
instead of having to understand everything happening behind the scenes. This gives you a predictable way to understand and manage your AIWA usage.

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Credits Are Not the Same as Prompts

One important distinction: Sending a prompt doesn’t automatically mean a fixed credit cost. What matters is the action AIWA performs. For example:
While:
Both begin with a prompt, but they’re asking AIWA to perform very different amounts of work.

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Your First Build

Creating a new application is one of the most substantial operations AIWA performs. A full build can involve much more than generating a page. Depending on the application, AIWA may need to work through:
A complete app build is therefore typically around 50 credits.
“~50 credits” is an estimate rather than a guarantee that every first build will consume exactly 50 credits.

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Launchpad and Your First Application

The Launchpad plan includes:
45 monthly credits
New Launchpad accounts also receive a:
10-credit one-time welcome bonus
That gives a new Launchpad user up to 55 credits initially, designed to give you enough capacity to experience a complete first build. For example:
The 10-credit welcome bonus is added once. It does not replenish every month. Your standard 45 Launchpad credits replenish monthly.

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Editing an Existing Application

Your first build is only the beginning. Once AIWA has created the initial application, you can continue the conversation and evolve it. For example:
Add a customer dashboard where users can manage their bookings.
or:
Redesign the homepage to feel more premium while keeping the existing functionality.
or:
Add another field to the registration form.
A standard edit or iteration typically costs:
10 credits.
This is why we recommend building iteratively rather than trying to describe every future feature in one enormous initial prompt.

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Planning

Sometimes you want AIWA to think through a change before it starts modifying your application. That’s what Plan Mode is for. A Plan turn typically costs:
6 credits.
For example:
Plan how we should add a marketplace to this application, including sellers, listings, payments, commissions and buyer accounts. Don’t build it yet.
AIWA can reason through the change first, giving you an opportunity to review the direction before implementation.

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Debugging

When something isn’t behaving correctly, AIWA can investigate and fix the problem. An auto-debug fix typically costs:
10 credits.
For example:
Remember that AIWA also has self-healing mechanisms within the generation process. Some internal checks and corrections happen as part of completing the work you’ve already requested rather than being treated as separate user actions.

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Generating Images

If AIWA generates a new image for your application, image generation typically costs:
4 credits per generated image.
For example, AIWA might generate:
  • Hero imagery
  • Product visuals
  • Background artwork
  • Illustrations
  • Brand-related assets
This is separate from simply displaying images that already exist in your project.

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Transcription and Idea Shuffle

Smaller AI-powered actions require fewer credits. Actions such as transcription or idea shuffle typically cost:
2 credits.
This allows smaller AI operations to consume less of your balance than full builds or application edits.

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Publishing Costs 0 Credits

This distinction is important: Publishing your application does not consume AIWA credits.
AIWA does not charge credits every time you publish an application. So don’t avoid publishing because you’re worried that clicking Publish will consume your remaining AI credits.

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Hosting Is Not Metered by Credits

Credits also aren’t a monthly hosting meter. Once you’ve published an application, AIWA doesn’t continuously subtract credits simply because the application remains online. For example:
Publishing and hosting are plan-gated rather than metered as AI credit actions.

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Credits Are Not Project Slots

Credits don’t represent a fixed number of projects. For example, having 130 credits does not mean:
Instead, credits represent the AI work you can perform. You might spend them building:
Or you might spend more of them continuously improving one substantial application. How you use your credits is up to you.

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Why We Give App Estimates

On the AIWA pricing page, you may see estimates such as:
Approximately 2 full apps
or:
Approximately 15 full apps
These numbers are based on typical full-build usage. They’re there to make credit allowances easier to understand. They are not hard project limits. For example:
But you could instead use those credits across fewer applications with many iterations.

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Why Can My Usage Be Different?

Applications aren’t all equally complex. Compare:
Build a simple portfolio website for a photographer.
with:
Build a multi-user SaaS platform with authentication, customer dashboards, project management, file uploads, payments, admin functionality and AI features.
Those are fundamentally different products. Likewise, an edit such as:
Change the headline.
is very different from:
Redesign the entire customer dashboard and restructure the navigation.
AIWA’s credit system is designed around the type of AI work being performed rather than pretending every software-development task is identical.

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Check Your Credit Balance

You can see your available credits inside AIWA. Aiwa Credit Balance Keep an eye on your balance when working through larger projects, particularly if you’re planning several substantial builds or iterations.

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What Happens When I Run Out?

If you’ve used your available credits, you don’t lose your projects. Your existing applications remain yours. Running out of credits primarily means you need additional AIWA building capacity before performing further credit-consuming AI actions. Depending on your account, you can:
  • Wait for your next monthly credit allocation
  • Purchase additional credits
  • Upgrade your plan if you consistently need more capacity
We’ll explain additional credits in Topping Up later in this section.

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Credits and Your Projects

A useful mental model is:
Using your credits doesn’t mean your application disappears when they’re gone. Credits power the work AIWA performs as you build and improve the application.

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Monthly Credits

Most AIWA plans include credits that replenish according to the plan’s billing cycle. For example:
Paid plans provide larger monthly allocations based on the selected plan and credit tier. We’ll explain exactly how monthly credits behave on the dedicated Monthly Credits vs Top-Up Credits page.

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Additional Credits

If you need more credits before your next allocation, you can purchase additional credits where available. These are different from the credits included with your recurring plan. That distinction matters, so we’ll cover it separately rather than burying it here.

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Using Credits Effectively

You don’t need to be afraid of using credits. They’re there to build with. But a few habits can help you get more value from them: Be clear about the outcome Instead of:
Make this better.
try:
Simplify the dashboard, make the four primary metrics more prominent, and reduce the visual density without removing existing functionality.
Use Plan Mode for major changes Think through substantial architectural or functional changes before building them. Test before requesting another change Make sure the previous iteration actually needs changing. Group closely related changes Instead of sending five separate requests for tiny changes to the same section, combine related feedback into one coherent request when appropriate. Don’t combine unrelated major features Clarity is more important than trying to squeeze everything into one giant instruction. The goal isn’t simply to spend fewer credits. The goal is to get more useful product development from the credits you use.

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Credits at a Glance

The easiest way to remember the system is:
These values give you a practical way to estimate how much building capacity you have available.

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Your Credits Power the Product Loop

Ultimately, credits exist to support the way AIWA works:
You decide what should happen next. AIWA performs the work. Credits measure that AI-powered work.

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Next: Credit Cost Table

Next we’ll go deeper into what each action costs, so you can plan your building capacity with more precision.

Credit Cost Table

See the credit cost for each AIWA action.