Some of Chameleon's AI features run on credits. Most AI actions cost one credit, for example, a single Profile Summary or a single Adaptive follow-up question. A Session Summary costs two. Your balance, your usage, and the controls for what you can spend credits all live on your Account page.
Availability & usage
🧑💼 Anyone can view your balance and usage; only Admins can change what spends credits
What uses my credits?
Two of Chameleon's four AI Agents consume credits.
What happens | Credits used |
Compass writes a Session Summary — one per user, per visit | 2 |
Compass writes a Profile Summary — refreshed for each user on a schedule | 1 |
Prism generates an Adaptive follow-up question in a Microsurvey | 1 |
Prism picks which End Action a respondent sees, in a Microsurvey with more than one End Action | 1 |
ℹ A Session Summary uses two credits because Chameleon makes two passes over each visit: one to understand what happened, and one to write the summary. An Adaptive Microsurvey with End Actions can use one more credit per respondent when Prism chooses which ending to show them. Costs are fixed per action and never vary with the AI model or the length of the output.
What doesn't use credits?
Copilot: every conversation, including through MCP. Never consumes credits, however much you use it.
Ranger: the automated or manual jobs never consume credits.
Friction: reading friction reports is always free. New friction is found while Compass writes Session Summaries, so it's covered by those credits and never charged separately.
👉 Because Copilot and Ranger are never metered, there's no reason to hold back on using them to protect your balance.
What can I do with my credits?
Because each action has a fixed cost, your balance reads almost directly as a number of AI actions.
Your balance | What that buys |
100 credits | 100 Profile Summaries or Adaptive follow-up questions, or 50 Session Summaries |
10,000 credits | 10,000 credits to spend in any mix |
25,000 credits | 25,000 credits to spend in any mix |
How fast will I get through them? It depends on how many users you have. Compass refreshes each user's Profile Summary on a schedule: every few days for new users, and every 30 days for established ones. Each refresh costs 1 credit, so the cost increases with your total number of users, not just new ones.
A few thousand monthly users and a 10,000-credit balance go a long way. Tens of thousands, and it goes quickly. Your Credits page shows daily spend, so you'll see your own rate within a day or two of switching Compass on.
Session Summaries are the higher cost, because one is written for every user on every visit, at two credits each
👉 Check the estimated monthly cost shown next to the toggle in "AI Controls" before turning it on.
Where do I see my balance and usage?
Go to Account → Credits. You'll find:
Your current credit balance
Your usage this month and last month
A 30-day chart, split by Compass and Prism
A breakdown by Experience for Prism, and by summary type for Compass
Where did my starting credits come from?
Every new Chameleon account starts with 10,000 free AI credits. If you were on a paid Chameleon subscription before we launched AI Credits, you received a one-off balance of free credits instead.
These credits don't expire. There's no clock on them.
It was a one-time grant, not a monthly allowance. Your balance won't refresh at the start of next month.
What happens if I run out of credits?
Nothing you already have is lost, and nothing needs re-enabling.
Compass stops writing new summaries. Every summary that has already been written stays and keeps working.
Prism Microsurveys stay published and keep running; respondents simply get your default Thank-you step instead of an Adaptive Follow-up.
Both resume automatically as soon as your balance is positive again. Visits that happened while you were at zero aren't summarised later.
How do I buy more credits?
Select Add More on the Credits tab
Choose a package
Continue to checkout (the payment is handled on Stripe's own secure page)
Your credits are added to your balance as soon as the payment succeeds
ℹ When you buy a package, you can tick Set up auto top-up to buy it again automatically when your balance drops below 20% of that package's credits.
Key takeaways
Most AI actions cost one credit; a Session Summary costs two
Only Compass and Prism use credits. Copilot and Ranger never do
Your starting credits don't expire, but they were a one-time grant rather than a monthly allowance
Running out never removes anything you already have, and everything new resumes once your balance is above zero