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Charm Credits
Prepaid credits, no subscription, and they never expire.
What it is
CharmWriter is not a subscription. You buy Charm Credits once and spend them as you write, and they never expire. Every AI action — drafting prose, transcribing speech, updating the Story Bible, reviewing a chapter, reading a chapter aloud, generating an image, talking with one of your characters — costs credits in proportion to the work done. Every new account gets two free credits on signup, with no card, which is about one full chapter and enough to decide whether the tool suits you.
Where to find it: Dashboard → credits pill (top right), or Workspace header → credits chip. Full detail: Settings → Billing.
What this covers
- Two free credits on signup, no card required
- Four prepaid packs from $2.99
- Credits never expire
- Live balance in the header
- A quiet heads-up before you run out
- Per-book spend badge
- A credit wall that does not interrupt your session
- Transaction history
- Refunds on unspent credits within 30 days
How to use it
- 1
Start with the free credits
Signing up grants two credits automatically, which is roughly a chapter. No card is asked for and there is no time limit on using them.
- 2
Watch the balance while you work
The credits chip sits in the dashboard top bar and the workspace header. It refreshes as you write, so you always know where you stand. When you drop below half a credit, a small strip appears at the foot of the screen saying how much is left. It shows whether you are typing or speaking, so a spoken session tells you too. It does not interrupt what you are doing, and "Not now" makes it go away until your balance changes.
- 3
Buy a pack when you need one
Click the credits chip or go to Settings → Billing and choose a pack. Checkout runs through Stripe; credits land in your balance as soon as payment confirms.
- 4
Check what a book has cost
The workspace header carries a per-book spend badge. Click it for the running total for that manuscript alone, which is useful when you are writing more than one.
- 5
Review your history
Settings → Billing lists every purchase and every debit, so nothing about your balance is a mystery.
What it gives you
You do not pay for the months you are thinking
A subscription bills you in the months where you write nothing. Credits pay for the work you actually do, and wait patiently in between.
Costs are quoted before you spend
Anything with a meaningful price — an image, a long recording upload — tells you the estimate before it runs, not after.
Nothing fails silently
You are told twice, and neither time stops you. A quiet strip at the foot of the screen when you drop below half a credit — whether you are typing or speaking — and a fuller panel in the same place if a request is refused, rather than a broken screen or a half-finished chapter. The panel does not take over the page: your book stays open behind it and you can carry on reading while you decide. It also tells the truth about which of two things happened, because they are not the same: your credits have run out, or you have some left but not enough for that particular request. In the second case a shorter request may still go through.
Refundable while unspent
Unspent credits are refundable within 30 days of purchase. Used credits are not — the AI work was already paid for on your behalf.
What spends credits, roughly ranked
Drafting prose in Writing mode is the largest single cost, followed by whole-chapter operations — AI Polish, Language Check, chapter review, rewriting a whole chapter. Generating an illustration or a cover is a fixed, quoted cost per image.
The background work runs on a fast, inexpensive model, but there is a lot of it: measured across real books, keeping the Story Bible current is about a quarter of all credit spend, and summaries, reviews, editorial questions and consistency checks are another quarter between them. That is why a credit buys about a thousand finished words rather than a thousand words of raw prose. Speech transcription is billed by the second of audio, and having a chapter or a reply read aloud is billed by the length of what is spoken — Listen quotes the cost before it speaks.
Reading your book on screen, browsing the Story Bible, using the Story Map, editing text by hand and exporting cost nothing at all.
Good to know
- Credits are per account, not per book. All your books draw on the same balance.
- A cancelled or interrupted generation is still billed for whatever was produced before the interruption. The work reached the AI provider and was paid for.
- The word figure on each pack is an average measured across real books here, not a guarantee. A dense, dialogue-heavy chapter costs more than a sparse one, and a chapter you rewrite five times costs five times.
- Prices are in US dollars.
- A generated character portrait costs a small fraction of a credit — the button quotes the exact figure before you press it — and a portrait you dislike and generate again costs the same again. It is a new face each time rather than a revision of the last one, so it is worth editing the character description first. Generating your own author picture in Settings → Account works exactly the same way, at the same price and with the same caveat.
- A long job that runs in many steps, such as reading in an imported manuscript, does not fail when the balance runs out. It stops at a safe boundary, says that credits are why, and carries on from there once you top up.
- Talking with a character out loud is the one place that keeps spending rather than spending once. A typed reply is one charge; a spoken one adds the reading; a hands-free turn also adds the transcription of what you said. Hands-free goes on doing that every turn until you switch it off, so it is the one control worth ending deliberately rather than leaving on.
Questions
Is there a subscription?
No. You buy credits once and use them at your own pace. There is no recurring charge and no plan to cancel.
Do credits expire?
No. Credits stay in your balance until you spend them. A book you set aside for a year is waiting with its credits intact.
How far do the free credits go?
Roughly one full chapter of about 2,000 words — enough to talk a chapter through, have it drafted, watch the Story Bible fill in, and judge whether the result sounds like you.
You offered me credits for feedback. Is that real?
Yes. While CharmWriter is in early access we may offer two credits for a few short questions about how getting started went, which parts you have tried, and the one thing you would change. It can reach you three ways: a message in the app once you have spent your first free credit, a line on the out-of-credits screen, or an email if your book has gone quiet for a while. The credits land the moment you send your answer, whatever you say, and we only ask once. It is a limited early-access offer, so it will not always be there.
Can I get a refund?
Unspent credits are refundable within 30 days of purchase. Email support@charmwriter.com with your order reference.
Does browsing my own book cost anything?
No. Only AI work costs credits. Reading, editing by hand, navigating the Story Map and exporting are free.
Start your first chapter
Every new account starts with two free credits, enough to talk a whole chapter through, have it drafted, and see how it reads.
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