Credits or subscription?
Three short scenarios to help you choose between prepaid credits, a Chat plan, and a Halfbill Code plan, and what happens when an allowance runs out.
Halfbill has two ways to pay. Credits are a prepaid balance you spend per message. Plans are a fixed monthly price that includes a monthly usage allowance. You can combine them, and you can change your mind any month.
What you'll need
Nothing. This page helps you decide; buying happens in the dashboard or in the chat.
The options in one table
| Option | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Credits | $10 and up, one-time | Everything: chat, coding tools, your own apps. Paid per token; $10 of credits buys $20 of usage at vendor prices. |
| Chat plan | Basic $8, Plus $14, Pro $20 per month | Halfbill Chat only. Basic: $32 of chat at vendor prices (standard models, without Opus, Fable, GPT-5.6 Sol, or GPT-6). Plus: $70 of chat at vendor prices, all models. Pro: $120 of chat at vendor prices, all models. |
| Halfbill Code plan | Starter $25, Pro $60, Max $150 per month | Coding tools and SDKs. Starter: $100 of coding at vendor prices for $25/mo; Pro: $240 for $60/mo; Max: $600 for $150/mo. |
Allowances reset every month and do not carry over. Current prices: halfbill.uk/pricing.
Three scenarios
"I chat now and then"
A few questions a week, sometimes a longer session. Choose credits. Add $10 or $25. A typical message costs a fraction of a cent on Sonnet, so a small top-up lasts a long time, and it stays valid for 12 months after your last purchase. You only pay for what you use.
"I chat every day"
Long conversations, several times a day, maybe with files or images. Choose a Chat plan. Every tier gives you thousands of messages a month for a fixed price: for example Chat Plus is $70 of chat at vendor prices for $14/mo. Pick Basic if Sonnet and Haiku are enough for you; pick Plus or Pro if you want Opus, Fable 5.1, GPT-5.6 Sol, and GPT-6 too. Current plans are on halfbill.uk/pricing. Keep a few dollars of credits as a cushion for busy months.
"A coding agent works for me all day"
Claude Code, Cursor, or another tool sending many requests per hour. Choose a Halfbill Code plan. Coding agents send far more tokens than a person typing, so per-token credits add up quickly. Code Starter gives you $100 of coding at vendor prices for $25/mo and covers light daily use; Pro and Max are for heavy or all-day use. Premium models have a weekly fair-use cap on top of the monthly allowance.
What happens when an allowance runs out
- Chat plan: the chat keeps working and switches to your credits at per-token prices. If you have no credits, messages stop until you top up or the month renews.
- Halfbill Code plan: by default, requests stop with a "payment required" error until the month renews. You can turn on pay-as-you-go overflow for the key so extra usage comes from your credits instead.
- Credits only: requests stop when the balance is empty. Auto top-up avoids that; see Add credits.
You can see how much of an allowance is left in the chat sidebar (Chat plans) or on the Halfbill Code usage page (Code plans).
Want the technical details?
Pricing & billing has the full tables, refund terms, and the VAT note. For Code plans, see Pay-as-you-go overflow.
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