Billing FAQ
Plans, credits, your own key, upgrades and cancelling: Mel's billing questions answered.
Quick answers about Mel's plans, credits and bills. The full detail is on Billing & usage and Pricing.
The basics
How much does Mel cost? The terminal is free. The agent is free on your own provider key, or included in a paid plan:
| Plan | Price | Credits each month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | None: the agent runs on your own provider key |
| Pro | $20 a month ($18 billed yearly) | 1,500 |
| Max | $200 a month ($180 billed yearly) | 18,000 |
| Business | $50 a seat a month ($45 billed yearly), 2 seats minimum | 1,500 a seat, shared by the team |
What is a credit? 1 credit is 1 cent. A turn is billed what the model that answered actually cost, plus a 20% margin. Providers charge less for context they've already seen (cached), and so does Mel, which matters because an agent re-reads the conversation on every step. Costs are tracked in fractions of a credit, and only whole credits are taken, so many small steps don't each round up.
What is always free? Everything in the terminal: blocks, tabs and panes, the editor, code review, search, SSH. Shell commands and CLI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex never use Mel credits. A turn on your own provider key costs 0 Mel credits.
Does paying yearly save money? Yes. Paying yearly saves 10%: $18 instead of $20 a month for Pro, $180 instead of $200 for Max, $45 instead of $50 a seat for Business.
Credits
Do unused credits roll over? Your plan's monthly credits reset each month. Add-on credits you buy roll over and expire one year after purchase.
Can I buy more credits? On a paid plan, yes: packs of 400 ($10), 1,000 ($20), 3,000 ($50) or 6,500 ($100), from Buy credits on the Billing and Usage page. They're used after your monthly credits run out. You can also turn on auto-reload to buy a pack when your balance runs low.
What happens when I run out? The agent pauses with a clear message. Your shell, your CLI agents and your own provider key keep working. Buy a pack, wait for the monthly reset, or add a provider key in Settings ▸ AI.
How do I see what I've spent? Every answer ends with a usage line that shows what it cost when Mel measured it, and the conversation's running total. The Usage history tab on Billing and Usage shows the last 30 days, day by day and per conversation.
Your own key (BYOK)
Does my own API key cost credits? No. A turn on your own key costs 0 Mel credits; your provider bills you directly, at their price.
Does my own key remove every limit? It removes the credit cost of a turn. Web search, command suggestions and voice input run on Mel's own accounts, so their daily limits still apply on every plan. See Billing & usage.
Plans and payments
How do I upgrade or switch plans? On Billing and Usage, choose Switch next to the plan you want. The change is prorated, and you confirm the amount in your browser.
How do I cancel? Open Billing and Usage and choose Manage billing. It opens your billing portal, where you can cancel, change your card and download invoices.
Where are my invoices? In the billing portal, from Manage billing.
How does Business billing work? One admin pays for the seats on one subscription and one invoice. Every seat adds 1,500 credits a month to one pool the whole team draws on. Adding seats charges the prorated amount now; removing them credits your next invoice. See Teams & Business.
Who do I ask about a bill? Write to hello@openmel.dev from the address you signed up with, or use the contact form.