How Acadwrite credits are used
See how every feature is billed: conversations by actual usage, and generation or text-processing workflows by document.
Conversations · Actual usage
Postpaid. Start with any positive balance and pay for the tokens actually used when the conversation ends.
Example: a typical question uses about 1–2 credits; completing a literature review in a conversation uses about 8–9 credits.
Generation · Per document
A fixed prepaid amount, independent of document length, is reserved before the workflow begins.
Text processing · Per document
A fixed prepaid amount independent of text length. Credits are charged only on success and returned automatically on failure.
Billing rules
- · Postpaid conversations: Knowledge Assistant requires a positive balance to start and charges the actual token usage when the conversation ends.
- · Prepaid workflows: The listed amount is reserved before work begins. If the balance is too low, Acadwrite asks you to add credits.
- · Search, review, citation, and related tasks completed inside a workspace conversation are included in its token usage and are not charged again per document.
- · A token is a unit used by AI models to process text. As a rough estimate, one Chinese character is about 1.5 tokens and one English word is about 1.3 tokens.
Frequently asked questions
How is credit usage calculated?
Knowledge Assistant uses actual token consumption. Generation workflows such as reviews, slides, and introductions have a fixed per-document charge. Text-processing workflows such as AI-score reduction, paraphrasing, editing, and citation matching also have a fixed per-document charge. See the table above for exact amounts.
Why are conversations billed by token instead of per document?
Conversation workloads vary with search depth, response length, and invoked subtasks. Usage-based billing keeps simple questions inexpensive while charging more only for complex work.
How many credits does a literature review use?
The standalone literature-review workflow costs 15 credits per document, regardless of length. A review completed inside Knowledge Assistant is included in the conversation's actual token usage instead.
What is a token, and how does it relate to word count?
A token is the smallest text-processing unit used by an AI model. As a rough estimate, one Chinese character is about 1.5 tokens and one English word is about 1.3 tokens.
What happens when I do not have enough credits?
Prepaid workflows check your balance before starting and ask you to add credits if needed. A conversation can start with any positive balance and is settled after it ends.