Features
Credits and usage
How Gluon charges in credits, who pays in groups, what's free, promotional credits, running out, balance and budget alerts, buying credits and the Plan & usage page.
Gluon runs on prepaid credits. 1 credit is $0.001, so $1 buys 1,000 credits. Prices may change; a credit’s value doesn’t. See Prices for what each thing costs.
Who pays
Section titled “Who pays”Everyone pays for their own work, in private chats and in groups:
- You pay for your messages, your mentions of
@Gluonand your scheduled tasks. - With the auto trigger, the member whose message gets an answer pays for it.
- Nobody pays for anyone else. There are no shared group credits yet.
- Storage is paid by its owner: your drive, artifacts and Linux workspace by you, a group’s drive and artifacts by its current owner.
What costs credits
Section titled “What costs credits”| What | How it’s charged |
|---|---|
| AI replies | What the model costs for each step, plus a markup; bigger models cost more |
| Web search | Per search, at the provider’s cost plus a markup |
| Reading pages that need JavaScript | Per second of browser time |
| Browser | Per second while a browser is open |
| Linux workspace | Per second while it runs |
| Sending email | Per accepted email |
| Storage | Per day, for each drive, artifact and the Linux workspace files you keep |
| Images Gluon generates | What the image model costs, plus a markup |
Free: every other tool, including the calendar, files, memory, recall and the guide; connector calls; the Just Bash workspace’s running; and Gluon’s own safety checks, such as classifying a new connector’s tools. They still appear in your usage so you can see them. The Auto permission’s review of a single call is charged like a small model call.
Artifacts that call AI charge each person who uses them; see Artifacts.
Promotional credits
Section titled “Promotional credits”Every new member gets 500 promotional credits. They’re spent first and expire after 90 days if unused.
Running out
Section titled “Running out”When your balance reaches zero, Gluon stops starting paid work: replies, paid tools, the Linux workspace and the browser. A reply already running stops with “You’re out of credits” and an Add credits button that opens Plan & usage, and an open browser or Linux workspace closes. Free things keep working, including reading your history, downloading files and deleting things.
Gluon also tells you when it happens, even if you’re not in a chat: an alert appears in Needs you, you get an email, and devices with push turned on get a notification. This alert can’t be turned off. Work that stopped doesn’t resume by itself, and stored files keep a small daily charge, so your balance can go below zero.
If Gluon can’t check your balance for a moment, it says “Billing is temporarily unavailable” rather than doing paid work unchecked; try again shortly.
Alerts
Section titled “Alerts”Turn on earlier warnings in Settings → Plan & usage, under Alerts on Overview:
- Low balance warns you once when your balance falls to an amount you choose. It’s on for everyone at 100 credits; change the amount or turn it off. It warns again only after your balance has risen above the amount.
- Monthly budget warns you as this month’s spend passes each percentage you choose, up to five, such as 50%, 80% and 100%. Each percentage warns once a month, and months follow UTC. A budget is a warning, not a cap: nothing stops when you pass it.
Each alert appears in Needs you with a push and an email; warning emails are limited to 3 a day. Changes save as you make them and show Saved; a typed amount saves once you pause typing or leave its field. Saving a setting you’ve already passed doesn’t send anything; the card shows Passed this month instead. When the reason for an alert ends, such as adding credits, its Needs you item is marked done.
Buying credits
Section titled “Buying credits”Use Buy credits in Settings → Plan & usage, from 1,000 credits at a time. The button only appears where buying is available.
Ask in a chat
Section titled “Ask in a chat”In a private chat, ask your Gluon about your own credits instead of opening Plan & usage:
- “How much did I spend this week?” or “What cost the most this month?” shows a spend chart by product, and Gluon names your costliest chats.
- “What’s my balance?” or “When do my promotional credits expire?” shows your balance with its promotional and non-expiring parts, and Gluon can tell you your alert settings.
- “What ran yesterday and what did it cost?” or “What did my trip chat spend credits on?” lists your activity run by run, or charge by charge, as the Activity tab does.
- “When were credits last added?” shows your ledger, “Show my payments” your latest orders, and “Give me this month’s statement” how your opening balance, credits and usage add up to your balance, each as Plan & usage draws it.
- “Warn me when my balance drops to 200 credits”, “Set my monthly budget to 3,000 credits” or “Turn off my budget alert” changes your alerts. Gluon changes only the alert you name.
- “Add 5,000 credits” shows your balance with Add credits where buying is available. It opens the same purchase dialog as Plan & usage with that amount picked; you choose the amount and confirm there. Gluon can’t buy credits or confirm a payment itself.
These answers are free and only ever about your own wallet, so Gluon doesn’t give them in groups; ask in a private chat.
Plan & usage
Section titled “Plan & usage”Settings → Plan & usage shows where your credits go:
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | Your balance and about how long it lasts, promotional credits, this month’s spend, alerts, costliest chats |
| Usage | Spend over time by product, private or group, or how it started; models by name, and the costliest chats |
| Activity | What ran in each chat and its cost, filterable; open a run for its calls and tokens |
| Credits & payments | Every credit added or removed with the balance after it, and every payment |
Overview estimates about how many days your balance lasts at this month’s average daily spend. It shows no estimate before the month’s third day (in UTC) or while you’ve spent nothing this month.
Credits & payments shows amounts with two decimals; hover or focus one to see the exact amount. Each purchase shows a short order reference with a button that copies its full order ID, in case support asks for it. Entries from before Gluon kept the balance after each change say Not recorded.
Usage and Activity filter by Private or group and by How it started: Direct (you asked), Scheduled (reminders and tasks) or Auto · group (auto-trigger replies). Clear filters on Activity resets every filter at once, and a chat can link to Activity to show its own usage.
Spending less
Section titled “Spending less”- Switch an agent to a cheaper model, such as GLM 5.3 Flash, for everyday work, and to bigger models only when you need them. See Agents.
- Start new chats for new topics: long chats send more context with every reply.
- Prefer web fetch over the browser for public pages, and stop browsers you’re done with.