Buying credits and setting up auto top-up

Credits cover any usage beyond your included message pools, plus international SMS. This article explains how to top up your balance manually and how to set up auto top-up so your balance refills on its own. These options are available once you are on the Standard plan with an active subscription, so they do not appear during your free trial or before you subscribe.

Note: You need the workspace Administrator role to buy credits or change auto top-up settings; members can't reach these controls. Organisation Administrators have this access in every workspace. For the full breakdown, see User roles and permissions.

How credits work

Each billing period includes a pool of messages per seat. Once that pool is used up, further usage draws from your credit balance instead. Your credit balance also covers international SMS, which is billed at carrier cost per destination. For how pools and overages are charged, see Sending messages. If you are still on the trial, see Your free trial.

You will find your credit balance, top-up, and auto top-up controls in the Credits & auto top-up section of the Billing page, under Settings.

Top up your balance manually

In the credit balance card, select Top up, enter an amount (or pick a preset), and confirm. Top-ups are whole dollars between $20 and $1000, charged to your card on file. Credits appear on your balance once the payment confirms, not instantly.

Set up auto top-up

Auto top-up refills your balance automatically so you don't run out mid-send. In the auto top-up area of the same card, turn it on and set two values:

• When balance drops below: the threshold that triggers a recharge (minimum $5).

• Recharge with: how much to add each time (between $20 and $1000, and at least your threshold).

Save your changes. After that, whenever a message send brings your balance to or below the threshold, emu.chat charges your card for the recharge amount. This happens in the background shortly after the send, so there may be a short delay before the credits land.

If an auto top-up payment fails

If a recharge fails (for example, an expired or declined card), emu.chat waits a while and tries again, spacing out repeated attempts rather than charging over and over. After a few failures in a row, it switches auto top-up off and emails your workspace Administrators once to let them know, instead of sending a failure notice every time. To start it again, update your card on file and turn auto top-up back on; the next successful recharge clears the count. Manual top-ups are not affected by this.

Review recent credit activity

The Recent credit activity panel lists credits added to your account, each labelled by type (such as manual top-ups, auto top-ups, your opening balance, trial credit, and admin or promotional grants). Per-message charges are not listed here; they appear in the usage table higher up the billing page.