When your credits run out

Credits

At zero, a new message does not start. MaShop refuses before calling any model, so nothing is charged and nothing is half done.

What you see

A notification appears: Out of credits. Top up to keep generating. Your own message stays in the conversation. The empty reply bubble that was waiting for an answer is removed.

Nothing warns you before you get there. There is no email, no banner and no threshold alert that works. The only signal is the number in the top bar, so watch it during long sessions.

What is kept when a generation is cut

A generation that is already running is not killed the moment your balance empties. MaShop sets a ceiling for the run at what your balance can actually pay, capped at 3.00 dollars of real provider cost. When the run crosses that ceiling, the agent is stopped and the files it already produced go through the same build check as any run.

If the result compiles, it is committed and you keep the work. If it still fails after the repair rounds, nothing is committed and your repository does not move. Either way you do not keep the turns that were never taken, so the result may be partial. Top up and ask the assistant to finish.

What happens to your automations

An automation is billed after it runs, so a low balance never stops it mid task. The run finishes, its output is applied, and only then does the charge fail.

When it does, the automation is suspended and tells you why: not enough credits, the work is kept, the automation is paused. It will not be queued again tomorrow. Top up, then press Resume on it. A suspended automation does not restart on its own.

The trial budget

An account that has never paid gets a small trial budget instead of a hard stop. It is 0.25 dollars of real provider cost for the life of the account. It is a spending ceiling, not a credit balance, and it is not shown anywhere.

Four things to know about it.

• It only triggers when a normal credit reservation fails for lack of balance, and only on accounts that are not Pro or Max.
• It is a total, not an allowance per message. A single generation can consume all of it.
• Every trial run counts for at least one cent, whatever it really cost. So the budget covers 25 runs at most, and usually far fewer.
• The whole remaining budget is locked while a trial message runs, then written back down to the real cost. A second message sent in parallel is refused, so send them one at a time.

The trial can also be refused without explanation, based on country or the use of a VPN. You then see the ordinary out of credits message. If you are behind a corporate VPN and the product looks broken on a brand new account, that is the likely reason.

Getting moving again

Two routes, both immediate once the payment clears.

• Buy credits from the Credits tab. The minimum is 10 dollars, which is 1 000 credits.
• Subscribe to Pro or Max from the Billing tab. The monthly allotment lands when the subscription becomes active.

A subscription also removes the deployment quota and unlocks publishing and export, which no amount of credits will do on the Free plan.

Three switches that report success and do nothing

The Billing tab carries three settings that look like spending controls. None of them works today, and each one confirms as if it had.

• Automatic top up. The switch reads: when the balance drops below the threshold, a checkout is started for the specified amount. What happens is that MaShop creates a payment link and stores it internally. No email is sent, no card is charged, and the link is shown on no screen.
• Low balance alert. Never saved. The window says Setting saved and writes nothing. No alert email exists.
• Monthly spend limit. Never saved and never enforced. The switch reverts to off each time you reopen the window, and it blocks no spending even while it looks on.

If you need a hard spending ceiling today, the reliable one is your balance itself. Keep the wallet at the amount you are willing to spend, and do not subscribe to a larger allotment than you intend to use.