What it means
AI credits are a prepaid unit of work. Generating text, pictures and audio with large models costs the platform per token, per image and per minute, and credits translate that variable cost into something an author can see: a task quotes its price in credits, the author accepts, the balance goes down. They are the AI-era descendant of the printer's page allowance and the phone card.
The term is used by many AI tools with different exchange rates, so the number only means something alongside three facts: how many credits arrive free, what a typical task costs, and whether unused credits expire. A studio that charges credits for the work but not for looking at the result (proofs, previews) is cheaper than the headline number suggests; one whose credits lapse monthly is dearer.
Credits are not a currency and are not refunded as cash; they are a measure of how much of the model's time you have bought.
In Bindery
Bindery gives 200 AI credits with no account and 800 a month signed in; Bindery Pro ($39/month or $390/year) includes 10,000 a month, and credit packs start at $12 for 2,000 credits that never expire. Watermarked proofs are free regardless.
Make the book, not the checklist
Describe a book or upload a manuscript. Bindery writes with you, typesets in LaTeX, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files — the watermarked proof is always free.
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