Paying per run or paying a subscription: work it out from real need

A subscription is cheaper when you use it evenly every month. Per-run is cheaper when usage rises and falls — and for most marketers it does: one month choosing creators for a campaign is heavy usage, and three months later there is almost none.

CIA charges in credits

Each tool has its own price and deducts per run. Prices live in the product table and an administrator can change them — see pricing. There is one exception: competitor watch is billed per cycle, 249 credits for 30 days, up to 5 channels, because it runs continuously rather than per run.

The reason for that design: most analysis work is campaign-shaped. You choose creators for a campaign, then you are done. Paying a subscription for the months you do not use is paying for air.

Three usage patterns

Campaign-shaped. Choosing creators, researching a niche, surveying premises. Heavy for a week or two then nothing. Per-run is clearly cheaper.

Steady, small volume. Tracking a few channels weekly, reading the sound chart weekly. Per-run still works: 8 credits a week is a small number.

Steady, large volume. An agency snapshotting 50 channels monthly. This is the only pattern where a fixed package could be cheaper — and for competitor tracking, the cycle package already exists.

Estimating monthly credits

List what you actually do, not what you imagine doing:

Multiply and add. Most people overestimate on the first pass, so measure one real month before topping up heavily.

Three ways to spend less without losing quality

Screen with the cheap tool first. Run the 5-credit channel report across the whole list, then run the 12-credit audience analysis only on the finalists. See comparing several creators.

Use Idempotency-Key so retries are not charged twice. See what Idempotency-Key does.

Keep your results. Re-running the same channel within the same month rarely produces new information but still costs credits if you change the key.

Worth knowing about credit expiry

Read the terms about credit validity on pricing before topping up a large amount. Buying in bulk for a better rate only helps if you use it.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an unlimited plan? No. Everything is charged in credits, and every tool has a hard limit per run.

Do credits work across all tools? Yes, from one balance. Prices differ per tool.

Does CIA issue invoices? No. CIA is operated by an individual.