Credits pay for the thinking. One is spent when Vamos answers you, and nothing is spent for opening a chat, browsing Discover, or reading a Watchlist.
What makes one answer cost more than another
Three things, and they multiply rather than add up.
How much Vamos reads. A question about one Reel is cheap. Watching a thirty minute video, or reading fifty posts across six accounts, is not.
How much Vamos writes. A hook list is a few lines. A month of scripts is thousands of words, and writing is the expensive half.
Which model runs. The spread between the cheapest and most expensive model is very large, which is why leaving the choice on AUTO matters more than most settings in the product.
See what your own work costs
Under every answer there is a usage row showing Credits used and the time it took.
That row is worth more than any estimate. Run the work you actually do a few times and you will know your own numbers, which are the only ones that matter for planning.
Spending fewer of them
Stay in one chat. When Vamos re-reads something it has already read earlier in the same chat, that reading is billed at a tenth of the normal rate. One long conversation about a project costs noticeably less than five fresh chats covering the same ground.
Leave the model on AUTO. AUTO can change model partway through a single answer, using a fast cheap one to do the research and Claude to do the writing. You pay Claude rates only for the part that needed Claude. Picking Claude Opus by hand pays the top rate for the research too.
Ask for the whole job at once. One message asking for research and three scripts costs less than a message of research followed by three more asking for a script each, because the research is read once rather than re-established every time.
Fill in My Brand. Not a credit trick exactly, but a real one. When Vamos already knows your audience and voice, it stops asking and stops guessing, and you stop paying for the rewrite.
What does not cost credits
Your weekly brief. It runs on every plan, free included, and never touches your allowance.
A Routine run that fails is refunded. If a run breaks partway through, the credits it took come back.