Usage, credits and limits

A guide to reading your usage meters, understanding your three metered resources, topping up mid-cycle, and diagnosing limit-related blocks anywhere in the platform.

9 min read · Updated Jun 29, 2026

Overview

Ken AI tracks usage across three metered resources: leads, email sends, and AI campaigns. Each has a limit set by your plan. When you approach or hit a limit, actions that would exceed it are blocked inline - with a link back to Settings so you can top up.

To see your current usage, open Settings > Billing in the sidebar. Your live meters are at the top of the page in the plan card.

Before you start

The Billing page is visible only to workspace Admins. Editors and Members are redirected to their Profile settings if they navigate directly to /settings/billing.

If you are not an Admin and need more credits, ask your Admin to purchase them from the Billing page.

How to read your usage meters

Open Settings > Billing. The card at the top of the page shows your current plan, your monthly price, and three progress bars:

Emails sent - the number of outbound emails sent this billing period, out of your plan's monthly allowance.
Leads - contacts that are both qualified and have a valid email, charged against your monthly lead allowance.
AI campaigns created - the number of campaigns built with the AI campaign builder, counted against your AI credit balance.

Each bar shows the raw count and the plan total (for example, "1,200 of 5,000 leads"). When a meter has no cap - on plans with unlimited usage for that resource - no denominator is shown.

The monthly price shown at the top right of the card is what you are actually billed by Stripe. If the exact figure cannot be retrieved from Stripe - for example on a new subscription that has not yet been confirmed - the card shows a computed estimate labelled Predicted.

How to top up mid-cycle

If you run short of any resource before your billing period resets, you can purchase a one-time add-on without changing your plan.

Purchase Leads

Open Settings > Billing.
In the plan card, find the Leads meter and click Purchase Leads.
In the dialog, use the + and - buttons or type a quantity directly. Leads are sold in blocks of 1,000. Each lead includes 4 email sends.
Confirm the total shown, then click Purchase [amount] to open the Stripe checkout.
Complete payment. Your lead balance updates as soon as the payment is confirmed.

Purchase email sends

In the plan card, find the Emails sent meter and click Purchase Emails.
Enter the number of email sends you need. Sends are sold in blocks of 4,000 (one standard sequence per 1,000 leads).
The dialog shows how many leads those sends cover. Click Purchase [amount] to proceed.

Purchase AI credits

In the plan card, find the AI campaigns created meter and click Purchase AI Credits.
Enter the number of AI credits. AI credits are priced at a flat $5 each.
Click Purchase [amount] to complete the checkout.

How to manage your plan

To change your subscription - upgrade, downgrade, or cancel - click Manage Plan in the top-right of the plan card. This opens the Stripe customer portal in a new tab, where you can change your billing interval, update your payment method, or cancel.

Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades and cancellations apply at the end of the current billing period, so your active campaigns are never interrupted mid-cycle.

How it works

Three metered resources

Ken AI bills you for three things:

Leads - one lead counts as one contact that passed qualification and has a verified email. Raw imports, enrichment attempts, and disqualified contacts do not count. Your plan sets how many leads you can accumulate per billing cycle.

Email sends - each lead purchased includes 4 sends, matching a standard 4-step outbound sequence. If you purchase leads as an add-on, 4 sends are included automatically. You can also buy sends separately if you need more sends for fewer leads.

AI campaigns - each time you complete an AI-built campaign it consumes one AI credit. Drafts that are not finished do not consume a credit. Free and lower-tier plans include a small fixed allowance; Growth plans include a larger pool, and additional credits can be purchased at a flat rate.

How remaining credits are calculated

The platform tracks three figures per meter: used, reserved, and limit. The credit available for a new action is limit - used - reserved. Reserved credits are allocated when a campaign starts importing leads - that reservation prevents over-commitment before the job completes. The reservation is released and replaced by the actual used count when the import finishes.

This means the available figure shown in the UI can be slightly lower than limit - used alone while an import is in progress.

When a meter is unlimited

On plans that grant unlimited usage for a resource, the progress bar shows only the raw count with no denominator, and no "buy more" prompt appears next to that meter.

Billing period and rollover

Your usage allowance resets at the start of each new billing period. Credits do not carry over - unused leads, sends, or AI credits from one period are lost at reset. If you need more before the reset, top up with a one-time add-on at your plan's per-1,000 rate.

On an annual plan the price is lower (20% off), but your allowance still releases each billing period - not as a full-year lump sum on day one.

Troubleshooting & debugging

Symptom: "X leads left - Upgrade plan" or "X leads left - Buy credits" appears inline in the campaign wizard.

Likely cause: remaining credits for that metric are below the cost of the action.
What to check: open Settings > Billing and compare the meter totals. If the plan type is Free or Starter, the CTA says "Upgrade plan"; on Growth or DFY it says "Buy credits".
How to fix: purchase more of the relevant resource, or ask your Admin to do so. Alternatively, reduce the target contact count for the campaign.

Symptom: The import is capped lower than the estimated result count.

Likely cause: the import limit is capped at min(estimatedCount, remainingLeadCredits) on non-unlimited plans. The platform will not let you import more leads than your current balance allows.
What to check: look at the Leads meter. If the remaining figure is less than your import target, that is the cap.
How to fix: purchase more leads before re-running the import.

Symptom: The Billing page shows $0 / month or a "Predicted" label.

Likely cause: the actual billed amount could not be read from Stripe. This can happen if the subscription was just created, if there is a temporary connectivity issue, or if the org has no paid Stripe subscription.
What to check: try refreshing the page. If the label persists, verify the subscription status in the Stripe customer portal (click Manage Plan).
Note: "Predicted" means the figure is computed from your plan's catalog price and contact volume. It is a best-effort estimate - your real invoice may differ if discounts, prorations, or add-ons are in effect.

Symptom: The Billing page redirects to the Profile page.

Likely cause: your workspace role is Editor or Member. Billing is Admin-only.
How to fix: ask an Admin on your workspace to check the Billing page, or to upgrade your role.

Symptom: The "Purchase [amount]" button triggers a toast: "Could not start the add-on purchase. Please try again."

Likely cause: the checkout Server Action returned an error, often because the page was loaded before a recent deploy and the action handler is stale.
How to fix: hard-refresh the page (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R) and try again. If the error persists, check your network connection, then contact support.

Symptom: After completing payment at Stripe, the meter does not update.

Likely cause: Stripe webhook processing has a short delay. The page also shows a "Payment received. Your plan is being updated." toast on return from a successful checkout, which fires once.
What to check: wait a few seconds and refresh the page. If the meter still does not update after 2-3 minutes, contact support with your Stripe receipt.

Symptom: The "Manage Plan" button does nothing or shows a portal error.

Likely cause: the portal Session Action failed, often from a stale page after a deploy.
How to fix: hard-refresh the page and try again.

Symptom: Usage meters show 0/0 for all three resources.

Likely cause: the billing backend did not return a subscription object. The page renders in its empty/Free fallback state.
What to check: check browser network tab for the subscription fetch - look for a failed call to the billing API. If there is a 5xx error, this is a backend availability issue.

FAQ

Do my unused leads or credits roll over at the end of the billing period? No. Your allowance resets at the start of each billing period. Unused leads, email sends, and AI credits from the previous period do not carry forward. If you need more before the reset, purchase a one-time add-on at any time.

Why does my remaining balance look lower than my limit minus what I've used? The platform reserves credits at the start of an import to prevent over-commitment. Reserved credits are subtracted from your available balance while the import is running. Once the import completes, the reservation is released and replaced by the actual usage count.

What counts as one lead? A lead is one contact that passed AI qualification and has a verified deliverable email. Profiles you search or import that do not pass qualification, or for which no valid email was found, do not count against your lead balance.

I'm on an annual plan - do I get all my leads upfront? No. Annual billing reduces your monthly price by 20%, but your contact allowance still releases each billing period rather than all at once at the start of the year.

Can I share credits across multiple users? Yes. Credits are shared at the workspace level - all users in your workspace draw from the same pool of leads, email sends, and AI credits.

What happens to active campaigns if I hit a limit mid-send? Campaigns that are already running are not interrupted. The limit applies to starting new imports or new AI builds. If your send infrastructure runs out of scheduled sends, contact your CSM.