> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.zerve.ai/zerve-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.zerve.ai/zerve-docs/superagents/budgets-and-credits.md).

# Budgets and credits

How a superagent's daily budget works, and what happens when it runs out.

Every superagent has a **daily budget**: the most its whole team can spend in a day, in credits. It keeps a long-running superagent's spending predictable, however much work it takes on.

## How the daily budget works

| Detail                  | How it works                                                                                                   |
| ----------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Who it covers**       | The whole team: the superagent, its coordinators, workers, subagents and batches all draw from the same budget |
| **When it resets**      | Every day at midnight UTC                                                                                      |
| **Default and maximum** | 25,000 credits. Leaving the budget blank or at 0 applies the default; you can set any amount up to 25,000.     |
| **Where to set it**     | **Daily budget (credits)** in the superagent's [settings](/zerve-docs/superagents/settings.md)                 |

The superagent knows how much of its budget is left and when it resets, and it paces its work to match.

## Tracking spending

| Where                             | What it shows                                                           |
| --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Credits** card, on the Overview | Credits used today against the daily budget. It refreshes every minute. |
| **Key numbers**, on the Overview  | Credits used in the last 24 hours                                       |
| **Your superagents** list         | **Credits (24hrs)** on each superagent's card                           |

## When the budget runs out

When the daily budget is spent, the superagent doesn't go silent. It still answers your messages in a limited mode: it can read its work, answer questions and plan or schedule work for after the reset, but it can't start new work that uses credits. It tells you plainly that the budget is spent and what it has queued.

These limited replies use a small amount of credit themselves.

## Your organization's credits

The daily budget sits on top of your organization's own credits. A superagent can only spend credits your organization has, so if your organization runs out, the superagent pauses, even in the limited mode, until more credits are available. See [Plans, credits and billing](/zerve-docs/administration/plans-credits-and-billing.md).

## What uses credits

A superagent's spending comes from two things:

* **Model usage**, as the superagent and its team plan, write code and check results
* **Compute**, as workers run code in their notebooks

[Batches](/zerve-docs/superagents/batches.md) can run many workers at once, so they use credits quickly. Choosing smaller worker models for routine work (see [Model and effort](/zerve-docs/superagents/settings.md#model-and-effort)) is one of the most effective ways to control spending.

For what uses credits and how much models cost, see [How credits are used](/zerve-docs/administration/how-credits-are-used.md).


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