> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.helve.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Pricing and credits

> Prepaid credits, raw provider prices per request, no subscription.

Helve is metered per request against a prepaid balance. There is no subscription and no minimum.

## How the bill works

* **Sign up and get \$2 of credits.** No card required.
* **Requests debit the provider's raw price.** A search costs what that engine charges, an extraction what that provider charges, a transcription what that model charges per hour of audio. Helve adds nothing per request.
* **Helve's fee applies when you buy credits:** 5% plus $0.35 per top-up. A $25 pack costs $26.60 and lands as $25.00 of credits.
* **Every response says what it cost** in `usage.cost_usd`, and the dashboard's Usage tab breaks spend down by day, tool, and provider.

| Pack   | Credits | You pay  |
| ------ | ------- | -------- |
| Small  | \$10    | \$10.85  |
| Medium | \$25    | \$26.60  |
| Large  | \$100   | \$105.35 |

Top up from the **Billing** tab of the dashboard. Payment is by card through Stripe; Helve never sees card details.

## What requests cost

Provider prices change; the figures below are what Helve observed at the time of writing, and the response is always authoritative.

| Tool                           | Typical cost                                                                                                                                                                     |
| ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Search, single engine          | A fraction of a cent to a few cents per query, depending on the engine and `mode`.                                                                                               |
| Search, `fusion` default panel | About $0.018 per query; about $0.023 with `mode: "deep"`.                                                                                                                        |
| Extract                        | Per URL, at the provider's page rate. Providers that take one URL per call are billed per URL.                                                                                   |
| Transcription                  | Per hour of audio at the provider's list price: AssemblyAI from $0.15, Deepgram from $0.26, ElevenLabs \$0.22. Diarization and keyterms add a few cents per hour on some models. |

## When the balance runs out

A request with an insufficient balance returns `402 insufficient_credits` and nothing is charged. Transcription jobs are debited when the provider reports the recording's duration; a job that fails is not charged.

## Refunds and adjustments

Purchased credits are non-refundable except where required by law. If a provider outage or a Helve bug charged you for a failed request, write to support with the request id from the response and the credits will be restored to your balance.