Organization admins on Team and Business plans can now purchase additional AI credit packs directly by clicking on Buy credits from Settings > Plans & Billing > under the new AI Credits tab.
AI Credits tab with Buy credits button
Credit packs are sold in increments of 1,000 credits at $100 per pack. Purchased credits are added to your organization's shared pool and are consumed after your monthly allotment runs out, with the oldest (soonest-expiring) pack used first. Credit packs expire at the end of your next monthly billing cycle (between 30–60 days after purchase), depending on where you are in your billing cycle when you buy them.
If you are billed monthly, your next billing cycle end date is your expiration date.
If you are billed annually, your monthly billing date is the same day of the month you originally purchased your plan (e.g., if you purchased an annual plan on April 12, credits expire on the 12th of the following month).
Buy more credits modal
When your organization's credits run out, admins will see a banner prompting them to purchase additional credits or upgrade their plan. Users who are not admins will be directed to contact their admin.
Credit pack purchasing is available on cloud plans using Retool-managed keys. Free plan organizations must upgrade to Team or Business to purchase credit packs. Enterprise customers should contact their account executive.
For more information, refer to the AI credits documentation.
We’ve recently run out of AI credits and had to interact with this, two major pieces of feedback:
It feels really greedy for Retool to make credits expire and for the expiry date to be so near / not rolling! Credits I have bought in the last 3 days all expire on Sep 13th. That makes me want to only buy a very small number of credits at a time so I don’t waste them, which leads me back here every day. I should be able to buy a ton of credits and use them indefinitely, Retool is already benefiting from holding my money why should it go in the trash in 30 days.
I had 4000 credits and they got used. I added 1000 more. I immediately got an email saying “you have used 80% of your credits this month” because I had used 4,000/5,000 … yeah I know that.
The 30-60 day expiry is the part I'd watch, buying a big pack right before your billing cycle ends means you lose the unused credits fast. Makes more sense to buy small and often, or right after a cycle starts to get the full window. Oldest-first consumption is sensible at least. Would be nice if leftover credits rolled over instead of just expiring.
Appreciate you for sharing this feedback - these are fair callouts!
About the additional credits expiration, this has been our policy to have credits expire at the end of the next billing period (at least 30 days, up to 60 days).
That being said, I have passed your comments along to the engineering and product teams who are discussing and reconsidering this now.
Regarding the email notifications you have received, the engineering team will fix this!
Happy to circle back here to let you know of any updates!
@Jen thanks for responding. I understand it’s the policy but I think the policy is punitive and out of line with how the AI industry at large treats prepaid credits:
Anthropic credits are valid for 1 year
OpenRouter credits are valid for 1 year
OpenAI credits are valid for 1 year
Google Gemini Ai credits are valid for 1 year
Lovable credits are valid for 1 year
Replit credits are valid for 180 days
I think for our company to be comfortable leaning more into Retool’s new app builder we need credits to be valid for at least 180 days, ideally 1 year.
Thanks for laying out these comparisons - it makes sense why Retool's current expiration window feels super short next to what you're seeing elsewhere in the industry.
Wanting more reassurance and confidence that the credits you have paid for won't evaporate shortly after purchasing them is a completely fair ask, especially if you're planning to lean more heavily on the new app builder.
We don't want things to feel punitive as you've mentioned, so really appreciate you sticking with us while we figure our policies out Thanks!
Right, the expiry window is the trap, a big pack bought late in the cycle can burn most of its value before you can use it. Buying small and often, or timing purchases right after a cycle starts to grab the full 30-60 days, is the sensible play. Oldest-first consumption at least means you're not accidentally torching newer credits while older ones sit. Rollover would obviously be the user-friendly move, but expiring credits are usually a deliberate design choice to drive steady usage rather than an oversight. Worth asking if they offer any grace or rollover on higher tiers.
Hello! Just giving an update that the AI credits team is still discussing expiration date extensions and aligning with other teams (e.g. accounting/finance).
Thanks again for all your feedback, and apologies for the delay as a couple of people from the team were out of office.
Also, @Sam_Stern1 the email notification issue is now fixed!
Let me know if you have any other questions in the meantime. Will come back with more updates as soon as I get them
Thanks!