Manual
Credits & billing — pay-as-you-go pricing with no subscription
Last updated: 2026-06-10
In short
KOLens runs on credits: 1 credit ≈ 10 scraped results, packs from $0.99 (Trial, 5 credits, new users) to $400 (Pro, 500 credits), anchored at $0.80/credit, and credits never expire. Only data collection costs credits — keyword scrapes, profile lookups, the first capture of a tracked video, and two premium AI reads. Everything analytical is free: the database, dossiers, audience snapshots, lists, watchlist digests, alerts and AI outreach drafts. Charges are pre-charged per job and auto-refunded on failure, so there is no overdraft and no surprise bill.
Credit packs
| Pack | Credits | Price | Per credit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial | 5 | $0.99 | $0.198 | New users only, one-time |
| Starter | 50 | $40 | $0.80 | ~500 scraped results |
| Growth | 200 | $160 | $0.80 | Most popular |
| Pro | 500 | $400 | $0.80 | Best value |
Buy from the in-app Credits page or /pricing; payment is Stripe checkout. No subscription, no seat fees, no expiry — a slow month costs you nothing, which is the structural difference from directory tools whose plans start near $199/month whether you search or not.
What costs credits
| Action | Cost |
|---|---|
| Keyword scrape (TikTok / Instagram / X / Douyin) | max(1, ceil(results ÷ 10)) — 50 videos = 5 credits |
| Single-handle profile lookup | ≈1 credit (~30 seconds) |
| Bulk enrich (2–50 handles) | Pre-charged per batch at the same per-handle rate |
| Video tracking — first capture | 1 credit; all scheduled re-snapshots free |
| Discovery plan run | Same as a manual scrape of its max_videos_per_run |
| KOL Deep Overview (premium AI dossier) | 2 credits |
| Web-grounded background research | 1 credit (free when cached) |
| Activity summary — force refresh | 1 credit (cached reads free) |
What's always free
Querying and reading anything already collected: the KOL database and dossiers, audience snapshots, authenticity scores, list decision payloads, watchlist digests, growth alerts, search insights, AI outreach drafts, conversation summaries and the whole CRM. The principle: you pay to acquire data once, then analyze it forever for free.
How charging works
- Pre-charge: credits are deducted when a job is submitted, so cost is known upfront.
- Auto-refund: failed jobs refund automatically — network or actor failures never cost you.
- No overdraft: insufficient balance returns HTTP 402 and the job simply doesn't start; a low-credit banner with one-click top-up appears in the app.
- Workspace pools first: if your workspace has a shared pool, charges drain it before touching your personal balance (see Team workspaces).
Tracking your spend
- GET /api/usage/daily?days=30 — per-day credit spend and job counts, for burn-rate charts.
- GET /api/usage/jobs — per-job charge with its data source (search, watchlist refresh, audience refresh, video tracking).
- GET /api/usage/ledger — the unified statement: debits from usage and credits from purchases, newest first.
Tip
Budget rule of thumb: ~1 unique creator per 7 scraped videos means a fully-enriched, contactable creator costs roughly $1.1 at pack rates — compare that against directory subscriptions when sizing a pack.
Frequently asked questions
Do credits expire?
Never. Buy a pack, use it across months if you like — there's no subscription to keep alive.
Is there a monthly plan?
Not today — KOLens is deliberately pay-as-you-go. Subscription tiers with bundled credits and seats are on the roadmap for teams that prefer predictable invoicing.
Can I get an invoice / manage payment methods?
Yes — payments run through Stripe; the billing portal (in the app, or via workspace billing for teams) handles receipts, invoices and cards.
What does a typical month cost?
A team running three weekly 50-video discovery plans (15 credits/week) plus ad-hoc lookups typically lands at 80–100 credits/month — within one $160 Growth pack every two months.
Related
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Everything in this manual works on a free account — the homepage demo search doesn't even need one. Your first search takes about 5 minutes.
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