SwarmCraft uses one prepaid credit balance. There is no subscription or per-seat charge.
What credits pay for
Creating a project combines two charges:
- a fixed Platform Orchestration fee for the selected discovery route
- measured server AI usage for generating the project and initial board
The quote shown before project creation is the authority for that project. Current headline prices belong on Pricing, not in this guide.
Why credits can be reserved
Before metered work begins, SwarmCraft reserves a bounded amount from the available balance. When the provider reports actual usage, SwarmCraft settles the charge and releases any unused reservation. A failed provider call releases the reservation rather than silently consuming its full bound.
If the available balance cannot cover the next reservation, work pauses before that provider call. Completed generation checkpoints or delivery work remain intact. Buy or manage credits, return to the saved project or run, and retry the same action.
Project generation and delivery use AI differently
Project-board generation always uses SwarmCraft's server-side AI and appears in the project quote. A Codex or Copilot account used for local discovery or delivery cannot replace that initial generation service.
During later CLI delivery, choose either:
- Customer-supplied AI: use a supported provider already installed and authenticated on your machine. Its provider charges do not use SwarmCraft credits.
- Managed AI: when available, send the bounded delivery call through SwarmCraft. Each call reserves, measures, and settles account credits.
Use Billing for the current balance, usage, and transaction history. Then review the route quote and create the project.