Check your AI credits and what uses them

Vocards is free to use. AI credits are spent only on the actions where AI writes something for you, and every account gets 500 of them every 30 days. Credits can't be bought.

What you need

• A Vocards account. Credits belong to the account, so the web app, the iOS and Android apps and the Chrome extension all spend from the same balance.

See your balance

On the web, click the round AI Credits meter in the page header, next to your avatar. The menu shows your balance out of 500, how much is left as a percentage, and the date after Resets on. The ring turns amber at 20% and red at 0.

Note: In a narrow browser window, such as a phone browser, the meter is hidden. Widen the window to see it.

On iOS and Android, open Settings. The AI Credits card shows your balance and a bar. Tap it for the reset date.

The balance shows whole credits, rounded down. A small action can cost a fraction of a credit, so the number doesn't always move after one.

When your credits come back

Your account has its own 30-day cycle. It doesn't follow the calendar month, and the date after Resets on is when the current cycle ends.

• Once that date has passed, your balance goes back to 500 the next time Vocards looks at it: when you open the web app, open Settings in the iOS or Android app, or use an AI action.
• The next 30 days count from that moment. If you've been away for a while, the new cycle starts the day you come back, and the reset date moves to 30 days from then.
• Nothing carries over. The balance is set to 500 whatever was left, including credits from feedback.

What uses credits

Each of these is charged for the AI processing it actually used, which depends on how much text goes in and comes out. There's no fixed price per card, per deck or per question.

• Building a deck with AI: Create and auto-fill when you create a deck, including a deck from a photo or file you add with Attach file.
• Adding cards to a deck with Generate many.
• Create with AI for a single word, in the app, and Create with AI in the Chrome extension.
• The AI helpers in the card editor: the wand button next to a translation field, and Suggest example.
• Filling in cards afterwards: Complete backs and Complete details on a deck, and the AI options at the end of a word-list import.
• Readings on Japanese, Chinese and Cantonese cards: Generate in the card editor, and the suggestions behind Add readings on a deck. Readings that come with cards AI writes are part of that card's cost.
• Ask AI about this card: each question you send. Opening it costs nothing.
• Importing e-book highlights in AI-enhanced mode.
• Generate my own copy on a vocabulary pack that has no ready-made translation into your language.

What never uses credits

• Studying: learning sessions, practice rounds, Podcast Mode in the mobile app, and playing audio.
• Adding cards yourself, and Add manually or Save as blank card in the extension.
• A deck made with Create empty.
• Importing a word list with Nothing – add them exactly as I wrote them ("No AI credits spent." ), and importing highlights as Text only.
• The Did you mean? suggestions while you type a word.
• Add to my decks on a vocabulary pack that has a ready-made translation into your language.
• Sharing a deck or a card.
• Checking the feedback you send for credits (below).

Running out never locks your decks. You can keep studying at 0.

When you run out

Vocards checks your balance before each AI step, and starts one only if you have at least 1 credit. Bigger jobs, like building a deck, run as several steps. A step that has started isn't stopped for lack of credits, even if it costs more than you had left. The next step is the one that's refused, so a job can run out partway.

What happens next depends on what you were doing:

Earn 500 more by giving feedback

Once a calendar month, you can get 500 extra credits by telling us what you think of Vocards. This is optional, and the feedback can be turned down.

There's no menu entry for the form. It's offered once you've run out:

• On the web, it opens by itself when an AI action is refused for lack of credits. On a paused deck, click Get Credits.
• On iOS and Android, it also opens by itself when an AI action is refused, and Get Credits on a paused deck opens it. You can also go to Settings, tap the AI Credits card, then tap Get more credits. That button appears only at 0.
• In the Chrome extension, Get AI credits on a word that failed opens Vocards on the web with the form.

1. Open the form in one of those ways.
2. Write your feedback in the box: what you like, what you'd change, or what went wrong. It needs at least 20 characters and can be up to 2,000. The counter under the box shows how many you've written.
3. Click Submit for 500 credits. It stays grayed out until you've written 20 characters.

Vocards reads the feedback before granting anything. Checking it costs you no credits.

• Accepted: you see Credits earned! and 500 credits are added on top of what you have. Your balance can then read above 500, for example 620 / 500.
• Turned down: if the feedback is too short on substance or can't be read, the form says so and keeps your text. Edit it and send it again. A rejection doesn't use up your month.
• Already claimed this month: the form says so when it opens. You can still send feedback, and the message after you send it confirms that no credits were added.

Feedback credits don't carry over either. When your 30-day cycle ends, the balance goes back to 500, so use them before the date after Resets on.

The month is counted in UTC: a new one starts at midnight UTC on the 1st, which may be earlier or later than midnight where you are.

Limits

• 500 credits every 30 days, per account.
• Feedback for credits: 500, once per calendar month, 20 to 2,000 characters.
• Credits can't be bought. Apart from the 30-day reset, feedback is the only way to get more.

If something goes wrong