In short: Opening, filtering, and reviewing existing leads, lists, replies, and analytics does not spend credits. Credits are spent when Signalist finds, enriches, researches, tracks, or writes something for you.
What costs what
| Action | Credits | Unit |
|---|
| Adding a lead from a list source (LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, events, uploads, and more) | 1 | per new lead |
| Company list from an XLSX upload | 1 | per company, found or not, plus 1 for each additional person |
| AI Company Search and funding lists | 2 | per company including the first person, plus 1 for each additional person |
| Email lookup | 1 | per lead, only when an address is found |
| Phone lookup | 10 | per lead, refunded if no number is found |
| Deep Research | 1 | per lead, only when the research succeeds |
| AI message drafts | 1 | per lead, however many messages are written |
| AI snippets in messages | 1 | per lead per list, however many snippets a message contains |
| AI columns | 1 | per lead, each time the column runs |
| Company tracker signal scan | 2 | per company per scan, plus 0.1 for each additional person |
| Job-change check | 0.1 | per person per check |
| Rescoring leads that were already scored | 0.2 | per lead |
| Update record in the browser extension, and Auto Re-Enrichment of Qualified Leads | 0.2 | per record, only when its LinkedIn profile was read |
| Job-title screening | 0.1 | per new job title; titles already screened are free |
| First lead scoring | Free | — |
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
Note: Pasting a LinkedIn profile URL into global search looks the person up straight away, which costs 1 credit unless Signalist already holds that person.
Confirm the cost before you start
Before an action that spends credits runs, Signalist shows what it will cost and what your balance will be afterwards. You start the action from that confirmation, or close it and nothing happens.
- Lists: select leads and open Enrich. Search for Email, Search for Phone, Search for Company Email & Phone and Lead Scoring open a confirmation titled Find emails, Find phone numbers, Find company email & phone and Retrigger lead scoring.
- Contacts: Enrich offers Search for Email and Search for Phone with the same confirmation. There is no company email & phone lookup there.
- Deep Research and AI columns: the cost is shown inside the Deep Research and Create AI Column dialogs, below Apply to ..., not in a second dialog.
- Start preview (when you build a list) and Run signal search (in a Company Tracker) open the same confirmation. Find person keeps its own dialog.
- Prices in the menu: each Enrich item shows its price: "1 credit per email found", "10 credits per phone number found", "1 credit per company", "0.2 credits per rescored lead" and, for Deep Research, "1 credit per lead".
The confirmation shows:
- the leads or companies of your selection, counted for the whole selection, a select-all across pages included (in Contacts, the selected rows of the page), and the ones it skips with the reason, for example "N leads · no email found before, or bounced: skipped", "N leads · already scored: skipped" or "N companies · already have email and phone: skipped"
- the Total, written "up to N credits" when you pay only for results, such as the emails found, and Balance after, written "at least N credits" then
- how the action charges: an email is charged only when one is found; a phone lookup is charged when it starts and refunded when no number is found
- for a preview, Needed to start: the credits your balance must hold before it starts (1 credit per company), because a preview is charged for what it finds. Where the number of leads is not known in advance, the total reads "Depends on the run".
If your balance is below the total shown, the total turns red, the dialog says "Your balance of X credits does not cover this. You need Y more.", and the confirm button is disabled. Next to it is Top up if you may buy credits, otherwise a Plans & Billing link. The balance is checked against the total shown, which is a maximum when you pay only for results, even if you will probably pay less.
If the balance cannot be loaded, Balance after reads Balance unavailable and the button stays enabled: the action checks your balance before anything is charged. If a start is refused for credits after you confirm, the dialog stays open and says "Not started: …. Nothing was charged."
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. From a list or Contacts, you see this in the confirmation, where the confirm button stays disabled until the balance covers the total.
Before enriching at scale: Check the list's limits and the expected number of leads, and run a small test first if you are unsure about the result quality.
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. Rescoring is confirmed first, and the toggle Also rescore leads that are already scored decides whether already scored leads are rescored at 0.2 credits each or skipped.
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.
- Job-title screening in a list starts only when your balance covers the new titles. If it does not, the list pauses with Out of credits before any title is screened, and the titles are screened and charged after the top-up.
- 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.
- Update record in the browser extension is refused before anything is fetched. The panel says "Not enough credits to update this record." and the record stays as it was.
- 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. Update record is charged only when the lead's LinkedIn profile was actually read; if the provider does not answer, nothing is charged and the record stays as it was. 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, 0.2 for Update record. Top up under Company Settings → Plans & Billing and start the lookup again. In the confirmation, the button is disabled and the dialog says how many credits are missing.
