Credits & Billing
Vidiking has two distinct, deliberate layers of billing:
A plan unlocks the Manage workspace. Credits are spent on top, only when an AI job runs.
This page makes both precise so there are no surprises.
Two layers
| Layer | How it's billed |
|---|---|
| Generation — AI jobs & renders | Pay-as-you-go wallet credits. No subscription required; credits never expire. |
| Manage workspace — the content operations layer | A subscription: Basic, Silver or Gold. Each plan includes a monthly credit allotment. |
You can generate forever on the Free plan with pay-as-you-go credits and never subscribe. A subscription is what unlocks the orchestration layer below.
What a plan unlocks
The orchestration that makes Vidiking a content operations platform is included in your Basic / Silver / Gold plan (see plans & pricing):
- creating, editing, decomposing and assigning Requests,
- posting standups and tracking progress,
- the Planner / Gantt,
- Sprints and burndown,
- building, attaching and running Workflow stages (the orchestration itself),
- approval gates and the whole approval flow,
- installing Marketplace workflows,
- the Operations dashboard and the deterministic AI Project Manager analytics,
- team management, roles and seats,
- publishing orchestration (pushing to a destination).
Higher tiers raise the limits (seats, projects, workflows, storage) and unlock advanced approvals, governance and studios. Running this layer does not itself burn credits — once you're on a plan, planning, assigning, reviewing and reporting cost nothing beyond the subscription.
Operator (ADMIN) accounts always have the workspace unlocked. On a paid plan, invited team members share the owner's plan — they inherit access up to the plan's seat limit (Basic 3 · Silver 10 · Gold 25).
What burns credits
Credits are debited only when a muscle runs — an AI job or a render:
| Operation | Notes |
|---|---|
| AI image generation | DALL·E 3 / Flux |
| AI video generation | Runway / Kling |
| AI voiceover | ElevenLabs Flash / HD |
| AI music | ElevenLabs |
| AI script | Claude |
| Final video render | assembling layers into output |
These are the same operations and the same wallet documented in the core pricing — Content Operations doesn't add a second billing system, it just spawns these jobs from requests and workflow stages.
When an AI layer is generated, or an ⚡ AI generate workflow stage fires, that's a credit charge. Everything around it is free.
The Gate
Before any AI job runs, Vidiking checks three things — the Gate:
- the user is authenticated,
- the user's email is verified, and
- the organisation's wallet balance is greater than zero.
If any condition fails, the generation is refused, no job is created, and nothing is charged. This is why you can plan and collaborate with an unverified account but can't generate until you verify and fund.
The AI Project Manager's ✨ AI briefing makes a small Claude call billed as a platform cost — it does not draw down your AI credits. All the AI-PM's numbers are computed for free.
Wallet basics
- Top up from $10 (Stripe).
- Balance is per-organisation — one shared pool across the whole team.
- Balance is valid for 12 months.
- Spend rolls up per request, per sprint and per organisation for reporting on the Operations dashboard.
The pricing strategy in one line
A plan gives you a predictable home for running your content operation (with credits included); AI generation is metered on top so cost scales with actual output. You pay a flat rate for the workspace, and pay-as-you-go for scale of AI output.