Credits & billing: how credits work, costs & limits
Credits are how Cesura measures usage. This article explains what uses credits and how many — which depends on whether you are on a personal account or part of an organization. The two answers are genuinely different, so start with the section that describes you.
If you are part of an organization
An organization buys seats. Only delivering a simulation to learners costs credits — building one and testing it do not.
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| A learner runs a simulation in a workspace | 1 credit |
| A learner runs a voice simulation in a workspace | 2 credits |
| A learner builds and runs a Personal Simulation | 2 credits |
| Building or regenerating a simulation with Professor Cesura (AI) | Free |
| Running a simulation in a Testing space | Free |
| Translating a simulation into another language (with AI) | Free on most plans |
| Running a simulation outside any space (a direct run) | Free on most plans |
Free here means metered but never charged: the usage is still recorded and still appears in your reports, and the pool is never debited for it. Testing runs and Professor Cesura builds are free on every organization account, whatever your plan says. Translation and direct runs are free unless your plan prices them specifically — check the Pricing tab to see which mode each one is in.
Two more things worth knowing:
- The first repeat is free. After a member is charged for running an activity, their next repeat run of that same activity costs nothing. Cesura can raise or remove that allowance to match your contract.
- Free is not unmetered. The free contexts fall under the organization's fair-use policy, which gives every member the same allowance over a rolling window. It exists to stop runaway use, not to ration ordinary work. Your full standing is on the Fair use tab of your profile page. The credit chip at the top of the app turns red only from 90% of a window, and reads Paused until a time if you reach the limit. See Fair use and the credit chip.
Learners never need credits of their own. A run inside a space is charged to the organization that owns the space — never to the person taking it, including anonymous participants who open a shared link.
If a simulation will not start with a message like “No credits available”, contact your organization administrator. Administrators: the balance, consumption and purchase requests are on Organization Management → Credits (see The Credits page), your guide to budgets is Usage & Budgets: how organization billing works, and the fix for each blocked-run message is in Why can’t a learner start a simulation?
If you are on a personal account
On a personal account you pay for everything you do, from credits you bought.
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Running a simulation (one participant attempt) | 1 credit |
| Running a voice simulation | 2 credits |
| Creating or regenerating a simulation with Professor Cesura (AI) | 5 credits |
| Running a simulation inside a Testing space (your own checks) | 0.2 credits |
Editing a simulation by hand, adding forms or quizzes, sharing, and viewing results never cost credits. Credits never expire.
Every new personal account starts with 50 free credits to explore the platform. Your remaining credits show as a chip in the top-right of the app. It turns amber when you are running low, so you get a heads-up before you run out, and red when your credits are used up.
To see your balance in full, open the user menu and choose Account → Billing & Subscription. Your credits are listed there as Credit balance, with the amount left.
To get more credits, open the same Billing & Subscription page, where you can buy a one-time top-up (it never expires) or move to a plan with a renewing credit allowance.
A checkout link works for 24 hours. If it has expired, start the purchase again from Billing & Subscription. If you paid through an older checkout link and your credits did not arrive, open Contact support under Get help, and support will add them to your account.
Members of an organization cannot buy credits for themselves. A member who tries sees “Organization users cannot make individual credit purchases. Contact your organization administrator for billing.” Credits for an organization are bought by its administrator.
Two features need an organization
Personal Simulations and translation are organization features. On a personal account you will see each of them in place with its controls greyed out, rather than missing: they are things to ask about, not things that are broken. Voice simulations are not among them: they work on a personal account too.
Need an organization plan, or a large volume of credits? Open Contact support under Get help in the sidebar, or talk to your Cesura account manager.
Do simulations expire, or limit how many people can take them?
No. A simulation you created stays available, with no time limit and no cap on the number of participants unless you set an availability period for an activity or your organization sets usage limits. The only thing each run uses is credits, so the practical limit is the available balance.
Voice runs cost double, and any creator can turn them on
A simulation switched to audio is charged as two runs instead of one, and it counts double against your organization’s fair-use allowance.
Audio used to be something Cesura enabled per organization, so an administrator stood between a creator and that cost. It is now on by default for every organization, new ones included, and any creator can make a simulation a voice call from its Delivery Mode tab without asking anyone. Worth telling your creators before the first doubled invoice. An organization admin who would rather not allow it can switch Voice simulations off in the organization’s Preferences. See Set up a voice simulation (the Audio page).