How credits are consumed

What costs what

Some screens show the cost before you start. For example, global search shows the price of an email or phone lookup, and a company list shows how credits are counted in the People per company step.

What does not spend credits?

• opening leads, companies, contacts, lists, or campaigns
• filtering, sorting, and reviewing a list
• reading replies, the Inbox and Outbox, and Analytics
• creating, editing, and activating campaigns
• assigning leads to a campaign
• editing a message or draft after it has been written
• scoring leads for the first time

Enrichment

Each new lead a list source adds costs 1 credit. The number of leads a list finds is what drives its cost, so check the list's limits before a large run.

Company lists count per company. A company list from an XLSX upload costs 1 credit for each company processed, whether or not a person is found, and 1 more for each additional person. AI Company Search and funding lists cost 2 credits for a company including its first person, and 1 more for each additional person.

Contact details are charged separately:

• Email: 1 credit, charged only when an address is found. When the lookup happens depends on the list setting, for example right before the lead's first email step or at a Has email condition in the campaign. In a running campaign, a lookup your balance cannot pay for pauses the campaign; see Campaigns below.
• Phone: 10 credits, refunded automatically if no number is found.

An email or phone lookup you start from a list, from Contacts, or from global search only begins when your balance covers its price: 1 credit for an email, 10 for a phone number. Otherwise Signalist shows Not enough credits and nothing is searched.

Deep Research

Deep Research costs 1 credit per lead, charged only when the research succeeds. Running the same research on the same lead again does not cost another credit. Bulk Deep Research is charged per lead.

When Signalist writes AI drafts for a lead that has no research yet, it runs Deep Research as part of the draft at no extra cost.

AI drafts, snippets, and columns

AI drafts cost 1 credit per lead. Generate 3 draft messages writes a complete sequence for the lead and costs 1 credit, not 3. Generating again for the same lead is free, and a generation that fails is refunded. Leads that already have Deep Research are drafted for free.

AI snippets cost 1 credit per lead per list, however many snippets a message contains. The snippet is written, and charged, when the message is sent; a stored result is reused. If your balance cannot pay for a new snippet when the message is due, that step is not sent. The Outbox marks it as failed and says your workspace is out of credits, and the lead's next step still runs at its usual time. A snippet that comes back empty costs nothing; that step is not sent either, because the message would still contain the placeholder.

AI columns cost 1 credit per lead each time the column runs.

Tracking

• Company tracker: each signal scan costs 2 credits per company, plus 0.1 for each additional person checked. How often a company is scanned depends on the scan frequency you set.
• Tracker columns: a column you add to a tracker is charged per company each time it searches. If its Update frequency is Once and will stop after finding a value, it stops for a company once it has found a value there and costs nothing more for that company. A run with nothing to search with costs nothing: a Job Offer or Technology column for a company without a website, or a LinkedIn Post column for a company with no LinkedIn page and no tracked people with a LinkedIn profile. A run that searched is charged, even if it found nothing.
• Job-change checks: 0.1 credits per person per check, at the interval you set. A Profile Tracker with Track job changes switched on checks each of its people once a month. A check whose LinkedIn profile could not be looked up is free, and the person is checked again next time.

Because tracking repeats, its cost grows with the number of tracked companies and people and with the scan frequency.

Scoring

Scoring a lead for the first time is free. Rescoring leads that were already scored costs 0.2 credits per lead.

Campaigns

Creating, editing, and activating a campaign and assigning leads to it are free. Two things in a running campaign can spend credits:

• an email lookup for a lead who has no address yet, right before an email step or at a Has email condition (1 credit if an address is found)
• AI snippets in a message, charged when the message is sent

If your balance cannot pay for an email lookup, the campaign pauses with the reason out of credits. The lead's step waits, and nothing else is sent from that campaign. Every sender of the campaign receives an email, and the Dashboard shows the issue with an Add credits button that opens Plans & Billing. As soon as credits are added, the campaign starts again by itself and the waiting steps go out. A campaign you paused yourself stays paused.

Where do I see my credits?

Your remaining balance is always shown at the bottom of the left sidebar. Analytics → Credits shows how many credits were used and what they cost per qualified lead, per reply, and per positive reply.

What happens if I run out of credits?

• Company Admins are warned in the app and by email when the balance falls to 10% of the plan's credits ("Your credits are running low"), and again when it runs out ("You have run out of credits").
• A list that needs credits pauses with the status Out of credits. You receive a notification and an email. The list stops right away, including lookups that were already running, so it does not keep searching for leads it cannot pay for.
• Once a top-up covers the work a paused list was waiting for, the list restarts automatically. It picks up the leads it stopped on and charges them then.
• A Profile Tracker's monthly job-change check stops, and the tracker's creator and the Company Admins are notified in the app. A job change it had already found is kept. Once credits are available again, the next monthly check covers the people it missed.
• Deep Research, rescoring, and email and phone lookups are refused with Not enough credits until credits are available again. Lookups that were already waiting stop, and the lead's email or phone shows what it showed before.
• An AI column does not run for a lead your balance cannot pay for, and nothing is charged. Run the column again after a top-up.
• A tracker's AI columns skip their scheduled run until credits are available again.
• Adding people to a tracker with Add lead shows Not enough credits, and nobody is added.
• Auto Re-Enrichment of Qualified Leads refreshes only as many leads as your balance covers. The others are refreshed once credits are available again.
• A campaign step with an AI snippet is not sent and is marked as failed in the Outbox. The lead's next step still runs at its usual time.
• A campaign that needs to look up an email address pauses with out of credits and starts again by itself once credits are added.
• Everything you already have stays available, including work that was finished when the balance ran out: a completed Deep Research, an email address found in global search, and AI column and snippet values are shown and kept. Only the next piece of work is refused.

Do credits expire?

Yes. Monthly credits can be used until the end of the following month. The credits that expire first are always used first.

Frequently asked questions

Do I spend credits when I open or review a lead list?

No. Opening, filtering, sorting, or reviewing existing data does not spend credits.

How much does Generate 3 draft messages cost?

1 credit for the lead. It writes a complete sequence in one go. Generating again for the same lead is free.

Does editing an AI draft spend another credit?

No. Editing a draft or message after it has been written is free.

Does creating or activating a campaign spend credits?

No. A running campaign spends credits only on email lookups for leads without an address, before an email step or at a Has email condition, and on AI snippets in its messages. If it cannot pay for a lookup, it pauses until credits are added.

Am I charged when nothing is found?

For email, phone, and Deep Research, no: an email lookup is charged only when an address is found, a phone lookup is refunded when no number is found, and Deep Research is charged only when it succeeds. A company in a company list is charged even when no person is found, and a job-change check is charged even when there is no change, as long as the person's profile could be looked up. A tracker column is charged when it has searched, even if it found nothing; a run with nothing to search with, such as a Job Offer column for a company without a website, is free.

Why did a list spend many credits?

A list's cost grows with the number of leads it finds and the contact details it looks up. Check the list's limits, whether email or phone lookup is switched on, and whether the list runs repeatedly.

Why does a lookup say "Not enough credits"?

Your balance is below the lookup's price: 1 credit for an email, 10 for a phone number. Top up under Company Settings → Plans & Billing and start the lookup again.