Billing & Credits

Credit-based billing

The SmartlyQ API uses a prepaid credit system called SmartlyQ Credits (SQC). Every API call that consumes AI resources deducts credits from your Developer wallet.

Two things are billed

Credits (SQC) pay for individual API calls that use AI resources. Connected social accounts are billed separately, per account per month, from the same wallet. The two are independent: a month with no API calls still bills for the accounts you have connected.

Connected account billing

Each social account connected to your profiles is billed monthly, at a rate that falls as you connect more:

Accounts	Per account, per month
1 to 10	$6.00
11 to 100	$3.00
101 and above	$1.00

Pricing is marginal, so 15 accounts held for a full month costs (10 x

6) + (5 x

3) = $75.00.

Your balance sets how many accounts you can connect

You can connect as many accounts as your wallet covers for a month at the rates above.

60 funds 10 accounts,

150 funds 40, $430 funds 200. The first 2 are free, so you can try the API before funding anything, and auto-recharge counts toward the figure. Adding credit raises the limit the moment it lands. If your balance later falls below what you already hold, nothing is disconnected - you simply cannot connect more until you top up.

Accounts are counted by the day

An account is billed for each day it stays connected, so a part month costs a part price. Fifteen accounts connected for half a month bills 7.5 account-months, $45.00. Connect on the 20th and you pay for eleven days, not a full month.

Disconnecting an account stops its charge from that day. Pausing a profile stops it publishing, but its accounts stay connected and stay billable. If you no longer need an account, disconnect it.

The charge is taken from your Developer wallet after the month closes. If the wallet is short, the charge retries daily; after the grace period your profiles are paused until it succeeds, and resume automatically on payment. Keeping auto-recharge on is the simplest way to avoid that.

Developer wallet

Your wallet is separate from your SmartlyQ subscription. Each request that uses AI resources deducts SQC; read-only calls are free. Top it up from the Developer Dashboard, and enable auto-recharge to keep it funded automatically. See Pricing for the credit packages and what each operation costs. To see exactly what you’re spending, check your wallet balance with the endpoint below.

Checking your balance

curl https://api.smartlyq.com/v1/me/balance \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sqk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "balance": "100.0000",
    "purchased_balance": "50.0000",
    "monthly_balance": "50.0000",
    "monthly_reset_at": "2026-04-15T00:00:00Z",
    "currency": "USD"
  }
}

Insufficient credits

If your balance is too low, the API returns 402 Payment Required:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS",
    "message": "Not enough credits. Top up your wallet.",
    "balance_sqc": 0
  }
}

SDKs & CLI

Guides

Billing & Credits

Credit-based billing

Two things are billed

Connected account billing

Your balance sets how many accounts you can connect

Accounts are counted by the day

Developer wallet

Checking your balance

Insufficient credits

​Credit-based billing

​Two things are billed

​Connected account billing

​Your balance sets how many accounts you can connect

​Accounts are counted by the day

​Developer wallet

​Checking your balance

​Insufficient credits

Credit-based billing

Two things are billed

Connected account billing

Your balance sets how many accounts you can connect

Accounts are counted by the day

Developer wallet

Checking your balance

Insufficient credits