Monthly allowances, purchase packs, and the surprisingly simple math of turning photographs into metadata.
How Credits Work
AI credits are the shared balance used by Shelvd's AI-assisted tools. AI Book Scan costs one credit per scan, regardless of whether you submit one photo or three. AI Enrich costs one credit per selected photo, with a maximum of 3 photos per run. AI valuation costs two credits only when a concrete estimate is produced.
This keeps the regular scanner simple, makes AI Enrich fair for existing books with larger image sets, and ties AI valuation credits to a usable result.
Where Credits Come From
Monthly Allowance
Your subscription tier includes a monthly allocation:
| Tier | Monthly Credits |
|---|---|
| Collector (free) | 0 |
| Collector Pro | 10 |
| Dealer | 50 |
Collector also receives 10 one-time trial AI credits the first time AI credits are initialized. Monthly credits reset on the first of each month. Unused monthly credits don't roll over — use them or lose them. This isn't an airline miles program.
Purchase Packs
Need more? Buy credit packs in Settings → Billing:
| Pack | Credits | Price | Per credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 25 | €3.00 | €0.120 |
| Small | 50 | €6.00 | €0.120 |
| Regular | 100 | €11.00 | €0.110 |
| High volume | 500 | €52.50 | €0.105 |
| Bulk | 1000 | €100.00 | €0.100 |
Purchased credits never expire. They're yours until you use them. The pack pricing descends gradually from €0.12 per credit to €0.10 per credit — standard volume pricing, no tricks.
Payments are one-time charges through Mollie, the same payment provider handling subscriptions. After purchase, you're redirected to Settings with a confirmation.
Which Credits Get Used First
Shelvd uses your monthly credits first, then dips into purchased credits. This maximizes the value of credits you paid for separately — they're only consumed when your free monthly allowance runs dry.
You can see the breakdown at any time:
- Scan page — AI credit balance shown at the top before you scan
- Settings → Billing — full breakdown of monthly remaining + purchased balance
Low-Credit Warnings
Shelvd nudges you when credits are running low:
- 3 or fewer remaining — an info toast after each scan: "3 AI credits remaining"
- 0 remaining — a warning toast: "No AI credits remaining. Buy more in Settings."
The scan button disables at zero. No overdrafts, no surprise charges. You see the wall before you hit it.
Checking Your Balance
Three places:
- Scan page (
/books/scan) — your balance is displayed prominently above the upload area - Settings → Billing — shows monthly included, monthly remaining, and purchased balance
- After every scan — the response includes your updated balance
What Happens on Downgrade
If you cancel your Pro or Dealer subscription:
- Monthly credits stop — no more free monthly allocation after your subscription ends
- Purchased credits remain — they never expire, even on the free tier
- You can still use them when AI Scanning is enabled for Collector — the feature gate and the credit balance are separate controls
So: your purchased credits are safe. If the free tier has AI Scanning enabled, you can keep spending them after downgrade. If an admin disables AI Scanning for Collector, the credits remain on your account but the scan UI will not be available until the feature is enabled again or you upgrade.
Why Credits Exist
Each AI run sends your photos to a vision model (Claude by Anthropic), which charges for the images and generated output. The cost to Shelvd is real. Credits are the mechanism that makes this sustainable without hiding the cost in a higher subscription price that everyone pays regardless of usage.
If you never scan, you don't subsidize those who scan fifty books a month. If you scan a lot, you can buy exactly as many credits as you need. The math is transparent and the pricing is printed above.
See also: AI Book Scanning · AI Enrich · Tiers & Plans · Settings Guide