This article explains how AI credits work in ActiveCampaign, what uses them, and what to expect if you reach your monthly limit.
Understanding AI credits
What are AI credits? Do all actions use credits?
AI credits are used when Active Intelligence completes an action outside of its core set of AI capabilities. This includes actions such as generating images, sending translated email campaigns, or leveraging advanced industry context & intelligence. Core AI capabilities include creating campaigns, automations, reports, contact import, and more. Currently, core AI capabilities are included as part of Active Intelligence and stay on even if your AI credits run out.
Will I lose access to Active Intelligence if I run out of AI credits?
No. Active Intelligence and core AI capabilities keep working when your AI credits run out. Only advanced AI capabilities will pause until more AI credits are added. Proactive insights & recommendations automatically generated by the Active Intelligence system also may continue to run. See Reaching your limit section below for details.
How many AI credits come with my plan?
Every ActiveCampaign plan includes 500 AI credits per month. Most accounts use well under this amount.
Are AI credits shared across users on my account?
Yes. AI credits are pooled. AI credits aren't assigned to individual users.
Do unused AI credits roll over?
No. Your included AI credits reset at the start of each monthly usage period, and unused AI credits don't carry over to the next monthly usage period.
Can I buy more AI credits?
Yes. Additional AI credits are available in packs of 100, starting at $10 per month. You can add packs at any time. See the Plans & billing section below for details.
Do trial accounts get AI credits?
Yes. Trial accounts start with 100 AI credits so you can try the full Active Intelligence experience. When those AI credits run out, upgrade to a paid plan to keep using the full Active Intelligence experience. AI credit packs can't be added to trial accounts.
Do reseller accounts get AI credits?
Currently, these accounts are not subject to AI credits and receive the full Active Intelligence experience.
What uses AI credits
When does Active Intelligence use AI credits?
AI credits are used when Active Intelligence completes an action, such as:
- Delivering enhanced versions of core capabilities, such as more involved work on campaigns, automations, segments, forms, and reports
- Generating or editing images
- Sending translated email campaigns for your recipients
- Running actions from the AI Action Library (automation blocks with embedded AI capabilities) inside your automations
How many AI credits does common work use?
The estimates below give you a sense of typical usage. Actual usage depends on the size and complexity of what you ask for, and one request may include more than one of these capabilities.
Core AI capabilities
You will have access to the core set of capabilities listed below in a basic form, but when you have AI credits, all of the tools will get smarter and even more powerful, supporting greater context gathering and personalization. When you run out of AI credits, advanced capabilities will throttle or pause until your AI credits reset or you add more.
| Action | Typical Enhanced AI credit use (Enabled Automatically) | Non-Enhanced Core AI capability credit use |
| Creating or refining a campaign | About 1-3 | 0 |
| Creating or refining an automation | About 5-15 | 0 |
| Working with contacts, lists, fields, or scores | About 0.5-10 | 0 |
| Building, refining, or copying a segment, including segments used to answer a question | About 1 to 3 | 0 |
| Creating or refining a form | About 3 | 0 |
| Pulling campaign performance reporting, including to answer a question | About 5-15 | 0 |
| Importing or working with email templates | About 1 | 0 |
Core capabilities run using scheduled tasks will pause once you run out of AI credits.
Advanced AI Capabilities
AI credits are consumed when Active intelligence performs any advanced AI capability. When you run out of AI credits, advanced capabilities will throttle or pause until your AI credits reset or you add more.
| Action | Typical # AI credits used |
| Generating or editing an image | About 3 per image operation |
| Sending a translated email campaign | 0.04 per contact |
| Running an AI action in an automation | 0.04 per contact |
| Prompting for automation health data | About 5-15 |
| Running external intelligence agents, such as brand monitoring, competitive analysis, and web search | About 3 per run |
Rates and capabilities are subject to change as we continuously innovate and improve AI capabilities.
What doesn't use AI credits?
Some actions never use AI credits, including:
- General questions and support about Active Intelligence, ActiveCampaign, or marketing, when answering doesn't involve the enhanced or advanced work described above
- Guided onboarding and setup help
- Proactive insights and recommendations automatically generated by Active Intelligence
- API operations run through the ActiveCampaign MCP server, including third-party AI tools and MCP connectors that connect to your account
Because Active Intelligence decides which steps a request needs, one conversation can include both work that uses AI credits and work that doesn't.
Tracking your usage
How can I see how many AI credits I've used?
- Admins and Users with billing permissions: Click your profile, then click Billing & Upgrade. The usage bar shows the account’s up-to-date AI credit usage for your current monthly usage period, from 0% to 100%.
- All users: Click Your AI, and an AI credit usage percentage will be presented. Clicking on the AI crest usage will open the page showing your account’s up-to-date AI credit usage and progress bar for the current monthly usage period.
- Clicking on the account’s profile avatar will show the AI usage bar.
Reaching your limit
What happens if I use all of my AI credits?
Active Intelligence will keep working. Advanced AI capabilities and context will pause until your AI credits reset or you add more, and core capabilities switch to their standard versions. You can continue to use core AI capabilities in their standard versions such as campaigns, automations, segments, forms, reports, and more. Active Intelligence will handle that work without the enhanced versions that consume AI credits.
Your ActiveCampaign account, contacts, data, campaigns, and automations are not affected, and your automations will keep running.
Here's what changes when your account is out of AI credits:
| Core AI capabilities | Keep working in their standard versions for campaigns, automations, segments, forms, reports, and more |
| Scheduled tasks | Pause, then pick up again when your AI credits reset or you add an AI credit pack. |
| AI Action Library actions | Contacts skip AI actions and continue through the rest of the automation. |
| Image generation & editing | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Email translation | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Automation Health Data | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| External intelligence agents (such as brand monitoring, competitive analysis, and web search) | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Advanced account context & intelligence | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Advanced brand & site context | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Advanced industry context & intelligence | Paused until AI credits are available. |
| Advanced user personalization context | Paused until AI credits are available. |
Which features throttle or pause may change as we add new AI capabilities.
How do I get paused features running again?
Advanced capabilities and enhanced versions of core capabilities return automatically when your AI credits reset at the start of your next monthly usage period, or right away when you purchase additional AI credit packs.
Plans & billing
How do I buy more AI credits?
You can increase your monthly AI credit limit at any time by adding packs of 100 AI credits, starting at $10 per pack per month. Admins and users with billing permissions can buy AI credits.
After that, AI credit packs are billed monthly.
There are three ways to add AI credits:
| When you buy a plan |
If you’re signing up for ActiveCampaign for the first time, you will be able to purchase additional AI credits after choosing your plan tier. If you’re upgrading from a trial to a paid plan, you will have the option to purchase additional AI credits during the Customize your plan step. |
| From your Billing page | Click your profile, then Billing & Upgrade. On the Your Plan tab, click Manage your plan. Choose how many additional AI credits you want, review the added monthly cost, then click Complete checkout. |
| When you run out | When you reach your limit, click Increase AI credits from the notice in your account or from the paused feature. Choose how many AI credits you want, then click Review purchase and Confirm purchase. |
Will I be charged automatically if I run out?
No. You stay in control of your bill. We will not charge you for AI credits without your say. You choose whether and when to buy more.
Do discounts apply to AI credits?
No. Additional AI credits are excluded from plan discounts and promotions.
Have more questions? Get in touch