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Startup Credits and Consumption
Every new ScriptFrame account starts with free credits. This guide explains what credits are, what uses them, how pricing works, and where to monitor and top up your balance after you log in.
1. What are ScriptFrame credits?
Credits are the single currency for every AI operation on ScriptFrame. One balance pays for everything: writing the story, generating character, prop and location images, rendering storyboard shots, producing video clips, re-splitting scenes, enhancing dialogue, and even answering questions in a shared storybook chat.
Your balance is shown live in the top navigation bar next to your avatar and is checked before any generation starts. If your balance is too low to cover the estimated cost, you will see an insufficient-credits message right away instead of a failed job.
Good to know: Credits never expire. If an agent sale refunds you or an admin grants a refund, the amount is added back to the same balance.
2. Startup bonus — 8 free credits
Every brand-new account receives 8 free credits once, whether you sign up with email or with Google. It happens automatically after your first login.
- Enough to generate a complete short story and a handful of images to try the full pipeline.
- Not enough for a long, high-resolution video — you will need to top up before rendering many segments.
- If your dashboard still shows 0 right after signing up with Google, refresh once — the balance will appear on the next load.
3. Pricing: $0.03 per credit and bundles
Credits are purchased with PayPal. There are four quick bundles and a custom amount option:
| Amount you pay | Credits you receive | Effective price |
|---|---|---|
| $10 | ~333 credits | $0.030 / credit |
| $25 | ~833 credits | $0.030 / credit |
| $50 | ~1,666 credits | $0.030 / credit |
| $100 | ~3,571 credits | $0.028 / credit (bulk discount) |
| Custom ($10 minimum) | Proportional to the same rate | $0.030, or $0.028 from $100 onward |
Custom amounts start at $10. From $100 onward the bulk discount is applied automatically, so larger top-ups give you slightly more credits per dollar.
4. What consumes credits
Every AI feature draws from the same balance. Your dashboard groups spending by category so you can see where credits went:
| Category | Typical action | How it is billed |
|---|---|---|
| Story generation | New Idea → Generate Storyboard | Per text generated |
| Image generation | Characters, props, locations, storyboard shots | Per image |
| Video generation | Video Editor → Generate or Regenerate segment | Per second of video × quality multiplier |
| Scene resplit | Re-dividing scenes in the Storyboard tab | Per operation |
| Scene shots | Generating shots for a scene | Per image / operation |
| Director effects | Applying cinematic effects | Per operation |
| Agent testing | Testing a custom agent before use | Per operation |
| Character voice suggestions | Suggesting voices for dialogue | Per operation |
| Dialogue optimization | Polishing speech delivery | Per operation |
| Storybook chat | Questions answered inside a storybook | Per conversation message |
| Agent purchase | Buying an agent from the marketplace | Flat price set by the seller |
Video quality and cost: Higher resolution costs more per second. Approximate multipliers are 480p ×1, 720p ×1.5, 1080p ×2, and 4K ×4. Some models charge a flat rate per video regardless of length.
5. How costs are calculated
Text and story models
Text costs are based on the amount of text processed — both the prompt you send and the story or dialogue the model returns. Longer ideas and longer generated stories cost a little more than short ones. Before a request starts, ScriptFrame shows a conservative estimate and blocks the request if your balance is too low; the final amount is based on the actual usage reported by the provider.
Image models
One image costs a fixed number of credits for the model that creates it. Generating four character portraits costs four times the per-image rate.
Video models
Video cost depends on duration and quality. For example, a 5-second clip at 720p costs about 1.5× the base per-second rate, while the same clip at 4K costs about 4×. Models that bill per video charge the same flat amount whether the clip is 5 or 15 seconds.
Heads up: The estimate shown before generation is intentionally conservative. The final deduction after the job completes reflects the provider’s actual usage, which may be slightly higher or lower than the estimate.
6. Where to track and top up after login
Everything is visible without leaving the app.
Step 1 — Log in and check your balance
Go to the home page and click Login or Sign Up. After login you land on the Dashboard. Your current balance appears in the top navigation next to your avatar.
Step 2 — Open the usage chart
On the Dashboard, scroll to Credit Usage. You will see the last 14 days of spending, with total credits used, number of operations, and a breakdown by category. It refreshes automatically and whenever you return to the tab.
Step 3 — Buy credits
Click the Buy Credits button in the Dashboard header.
- Pick a bundle ($10 / $25 / $50 / $100) or enter a custom amount of at least $10.
- Check the preview that shows how many credits you will receive.
- Pay with the PayPal button. On success you will see a confirmation banner and your balance in the navigation updates immediately.
- After paying, please also email support@scriptframe.studio as noted in the checkout modal so the team can reconcile the PayPal payment quickly.
Step 4 — Compare on the Pricing page
Visit Pricing from the navigation for the same bundle grid and FAQs in a full-page view. Choosing a bundle there takes you through the same PayPal flow — you need to be signed in to complete the purchase.
Step 5 — Check the daily breakdown
The usage chart reads your daily totals directly, so the numbers you see in the interface match your actual spending history. Use it to spot which stages or resolutions consume the most.
7. Saving credits — practical tips
- Start short. Generate 4–8 chapters first. You can add chapters or re-split scenes later instead of regenerating the whole story.
- Use 720p previews. Render video segments at 720p to check timing and visuals, then re-render only the final cut at 1080p or 4K.
- Batch storyboard edits. Fix dialogue and descriptions across several scenes before regenerating shots — it is cheaper than running the full pipeline again.
- Pick models deliberately. In Agents and Settings, cheaper models with similar quality can significantly reduce text and image costs.
- Manage storybook chat. Chat in a shared storybook bills the story owner per message. Turn chat off in Manage Storybook before sharing an export publicly if you do not want to pay for others’ questions.
8. FAQ
Do credits expire?
No. They stay in your account until you spend them or delete your account.
What if a generation costs less than 0.01 credits?
Very short text operations are rounded up to a minimum of 0.01 credits when they use any tokens at all. Operations that use no tokens remain at 0.
Can I get a refund for an agent purchase?
Yes — approved refunds are credited back to the same balance as credits, not as cash.
Who pays when someone chats in my exported storybook?
You do, as the story owner, for as long as chat is enabled. Each message from a reader of your exported file bills your account. Disable chat before sharing broadly to avoid this.
I was charged a small amount even though the job failed — why?
Charges are based on provider-reported usage after the call completes. If a job fails without usage reported, you are not charged. If it failed after partial generation, the used portion is billed and the daily chart will show it.