What it is
Rather than fixed limits, AI Visibility uses credits to reflect real usage. Your credit consumption is determined by three concrete decisions you make: what you track, where you track it, and how often you refresh it.
The three factors that determine credit usage
Every credit used in AI Visibility comes down to a combination of:
Coverage - how many AI engines you track per search term
Cadence - how often those terms are refreshed
Depth - which engines and features you use (e.g. reasoning models, web search, page audits)
Credits scale linearly with these choices. More engines, more frequent updates, or deeper analysis all increase usage.
How refreshes translate into credit usage
Each time you refresh a search term, Keyword.com runs that term against the AI engines you’ve selected.
This creates what we call runs.
A run is best understood as:
Search term × AI engine × refresh event
Examples:
1 search term × 1 engine × 1 refresh → 1 run
1 search term × 3 engines × 1 refresh → 3 runs
10 search terms × 2 engines × 1 refresh → 20 runs
Each run consumes credits based on the engine used.
Refresh cadence options
You control how often refreshes happen per search term:
Manual (on demand)
Hourly
Daily
Weekly
More frequent refreshes generate more runs and therefore use more credits.
Tip: Most teams run a small set of critical terms daily, and keep secondary or exploratory terms on weekly or manual refresh.
Credits per AI engine
Different AI engines require different levels of computation. Credit cost reflects this.
AI Engine | Credits per run |
Perplexity | 0.25 |
AI Mode | 0.25 |
OpenAI GPT-5o* (auto web search) | 0.25 |
Google AI Overview | 1 |
Gemini | 0.25 |
Claude 4.5 | 2 |
DeepSeek V3 | 1 |
Perplexity Sonar-Reasoning | 1 |
Perplexity Sonar-Pro | 2 |
Perplexity Sonar-Reasoning-Pro | 2 |
Mistral Large | 2 |
Page Audits | 5 |
xAI Grok (coming soon) | 0.25 |
Bing / Copilot (coming soon) | 0.25 |
* ChatGPT-5o is used most of the time, but the specific model may vary based on availability.
Using the Runway to plan usage
Runway shows how many days of automatic updates you have left at your current settings.
Runway is calculated based on:
your remaining credits
your active search terms
selected engines
refresh cadence
A shrinking runway is a signal, not an error. It tells you when your current setup will exhaust credits if nothing changes.
Extending your Runway
You can extend runway without reducing coverage by:
switching non-critical terms to weekly or manual refresh
reducing the number of engines on exploratory terms
pausing low-value terms temporarily
Monthly credit reset & expiry
Credits are allocated per billing cycle
Unused credits expire at the end of the cycle
Credits do not roll over
This encourages active usage planning rather than stockpiling.
What happens when credits run out
If available credits reach zero:
Automatic refreshes pause
Manual refreshes are blocked
You’ll be prompted to top up credits or adjust your plan
There are no automatic overages.
📸 Screenshot placeholder – low credits or blocked refresh state
How teams typically manage credits
Common usage patterns across teams:
Core brand or revenue terms → daily refresh, multiple engines
Category or competitive terms → weekly refresh
Exploratory or experimental terms → manual refresh
Page audits → run selectively, not continuously
This approach balances visibility, cost, and signal quality.
Best practices
Start broad, then narrow to the engines that matter
Use Runway as a planning tool, not a warning
Review usage monthly and adjust cadence instead of adding credits blindly