How are credits charged per recipient?

Emailit charges by recipient, not by request. This article explains how many credits an email uses, when they’re deducted, and why your usage can be higher than your number of API calls.

Symptoms

• Credit usage is higher than the number of requests in Email API›Logs.
• One API call created several emails, each with its own em_… ID.
• Credits were used for emails that later bounced or were suppressed.

Cause

Every action has a fixed price in creditsCreditThe unit Emailit bills in. Each action costs a fixed number of credits, for example 1 for an API or SMTP email and 2 for a campaign email.:

Action	Credits
Email sent with the API or SMTP (per recipient)	1
Inbound email received	1
Campaign email (per recipient)	2
Automation run	3
Email verification (per address)	5

How recipients are counted:

• Every unique recipient is one email. Emailit sends a separate copy to each address in to, cc and bcc, and each copy gets its own ID. A request with 2 addresses in to, 1 in cc and 1 in bcc costs 4 credits and returns all four IDs in the ids field.
• Duplicates are removed first. The same address in to and cc, in any letter case, is charged once.
• SMTP counts envelope recipients. Every RCPT TO address in the SMTP session becomes its own email, including addresses you only put in Bcc.
• Campaigns cost 2 credits per recipient, after unsubscribed, suppressed and duplicate contacts are removed.
• Retry and forward are new sends. They’re charged again at the normal rate.

When credits are deducted:

• API emails are charged when the request is accepted. If you don’t have enough credits for all recipients, the request fails with 402 and nothing is charged.
• SMTP and campaign emails are charged when Emailit processes each one for delivery. If credits run out then, the email is held.
• Accepted emails aren’t refunded if they later bounce, are suppressed or are canceled.

Your monthly included credits are used first, then purchased credits.

Fix

1. See where credits went. Open Workspace›Billing, select Billable usage and review the per-product table and daily chart.

2. Count recipients, not requests. In Email API›Emails, filter by date to see how many individual emails were created.

3. Avoid paying for bad addresses. Remove bounced and suppressed addresses from your own lists, and validate new sign-ups with email verification. An email to a suppressed address is still charged when the API accepts it.

4. Prevent accidental duplicates. Use an Idempotency-Key so retries of the same request aren’t charged twice.

5. Plan for volume. Compare per-credit prices across plans on pricing and in Credits.

If you run out often, turn on auto-refill. For the error you get when credits run out, see Why do I get 402 Insufficient credits?.

Still stuck?

If your usage doesn’t match what you sent, contact support or ask in Discord with your workspace name and the date range.