Billing & usage
Plans, usage counting, and what's free.
Mel's terminal is free. The hosted AI agent runs on credits, and the paid plans include a monthly credit allotment. On Free, the agent runs on your own provider key — 0 Mel credits, no Mel markup. No waitlist.
What's free
Everything in the terminal is free to download and use on macOS, Windows, and Linux: blocks, the command palette, splits and tabs, chips, the built-in code review and editor, CLI agent sessions, SSH, and global search. None of it requires an account, and none of it ever costs credits.
Agent access needs a free Mel account — sign-up is self-serve and instant. On the Free plan the agent runs on a provider key you add in Settings → AI → Provider API keys: you pay your provider directly, at their price, and it costs 0 Mel credits. (Groq and Gemini both offer free key tiers.) On Pro, Max and Business you don't need a key of your own — provider keys are held server-side on the Mel relay and your turns draw on your monthly allotment. Create an account from the account sign-up flow.
Credits
1 credit = 1 cent, and a turn is billed what it actually cost us to run plus a 20% margin. That cost is the provider's real charge for the model that answered — including their discount for cached context, which matters a lot: an agent re-reads the conversation on every step, providers bill that re-read at a fraction of the normal price, and so do we. Web searches are billed the same way. Costs are tracked in fractions of a credit and only whole credits are deducted, so many small steps don't each round up to a full credit. The automatic router keeps everyday turns on cost-efficient models, so credits go a long way.
Monthly allotments (reset each month):
| Plan | Price | Credits / month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — (your own provider key) |
| Pro | $20 / mo ($18 annually) | 1,500 |
| Max | $200 / mo ($180 annually) | 18,000 |
| Business | $50 / seat / mo ($45 annually), 2 seats minimum | 1,500 per seat, shared by the whole team |
- Bring your own key = 0 credits. A turn on your own provider key never touches your allotment. It is not *unlimited*, though: fair-use ceilings still apply to every plan to stop scripted abuse (they are set far above what a person working hard reaches, and a per-minute ceiling is waited out rather than ending your turn), and features that run on Mel's keys — web search, command suggestions and voice input — are capped per plan whether or not you bring a key.
- Business pools every seat's credits into one balance the whole team draws on, on one subscription and one invoice. See Teams & Business.
- Shell commands and CLI coding agents are always free — they don't use Mel credits.
- No credits available? The agent pauses with a clear message; your shell, your CLI agents and your own provider key keep working. On Free, add a provider key in Settings → AI. On a paid plan, buy an add-on pack or wait for the monthly reset.
Add-on ("Personal") credit packs
On a paid plan you can top up any time with prepaid packs — 400 ($10) · 1,000 ($20) · 3,000 ($50) · 6,500 ($100). Add-on credits roll over; they're used after your monthly base credits are spent. Optional auto-reload buys the pack you picked automatically when your balance runs low.
The Billing and usage settings page
Open it from the avatar menu (Billing and Usage) or via Settings. Its Overview tab shows, live from your account:
- Your plan, when it renews, and your current credit balance.
- Two balance cards: Base credits (allotment remaining + the monthly reset date) and Personal credits (add-on balance).
- Switch options for other plans (prorated; you confirm the amount in your browser), Buy credits in the four pack sizes or a custom amount (paid plans), and the auto-reload toggle.
- Manage billing opens your billing portal for invoices and your card.
The Usage history tab shows the last 30 days: your credits used, in total and day by day, and a card for each conversation with its tokens, models, tool calls, commands executed and files changed. On a Business team, the page says which team you are on; the credits shown are the team's, and the admin manages the plan and buys credits.
Seeing your usage
- Every agent response ends with an expandable line — the model, the tokens and, when Mel measured it, what the answer cost in credits ("0 credits · your key" on your own key) — that opens a usage summary: the model used (and why the auto router picked it), tokens in and out, tool calls, context percentage, time to first token, and total time. The conversation's running total is there too.
- When your base balance runs low, the agent shows a small "low on credits" banner with a rough estimate of how many turns are left.
Per-plan feature caps
Beyond credits, a few features scale with your plan. Bringing your own key does not lift these — they run on Mel's keys and Mel's infrastructure, not yours, so they cost Mel money on a BYOK turn exactly as they do on any other:
| Feature | Free | Pro | Max | Business | Your own key lifts it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web searches per day | — | 250 | 1,000 | 250 | No — runs on Mel's search key |
| Command suggestions per day | — | 2,000 | 5,000 | 2,000 | No — runs on Mel's model key |
| Parallel orchestration agents | 1 | 3 | 8 | 3 / seat | No |
| Voice input minutes per day | — | 60 | 120 | 60 | No — runs on Mel's speech-to-text |
| Images per message (vision) | 3 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Yes |
| Cross-session memory recall | 30 days | 1 year | Unlimited | 1 year | n/a — BYOK turns are not stored to memory |
Agent turns themselves are the part your key does cover: on your own key they cost 0 Mel credits, on any plan.
Change or cancel your plan
- Switch plans on the Overview tab of Billing and Usage. A switch is prorated, and you confirm the amount in your browser.
- Cancel from Manage billing, which opens your billing portal. When the subscription ends, your account goes back to Free: the agent runs on your own provider key, and your monthly credit allotment ends. Add-on credits you bought are not taken away.
- Business: only the team's owner can cancel. Members go back to their own plans when it ends. See Teams & Business.
- Invoices and your card are in the billing portal too.
For a question about a charge or a refund, email hello@openmel.dev from the address on your account.
Billing FAQ
What is a Mel credit? One credit is one US cent. A turn costs what the model that answered cost Mel, plus 20%, counted in fractions of a credit.
What's free? The whole terminal, shell commands, CLI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex, and every agent turn on your own provider key.
Does bringing my own API key cost anything? No Mel credits. You pay your provider directly. Web search, voice input and command suggestions still have daily limits, because they run on Mel's accounts.
What happens when I run out of credits? The agent pauses with a message. Your terminal and your own key keep working. Buy an add-on pack or wait for the monthly reset.
Do unused monthly credits roll over? No, they reset each month. Add-on credits roll over and last a year.
How do I see what each answer cost? On the usage line under the answer, and day by day on the Usage history tab.
Related
- Account — sign-in and self-serve sign-up
- Models & pricing — which models, and what a turn costs
- Pricing — the full plan comparison
- Privacy — hosted keys stay server-side (your own keys stay on-device); usage data shown is per-response, not tracked analytics