Credit System Explained

preparAItor uses a unified credit system. Every action — parsing a job, analyzing a CV, generating documents, running an interview session — draws from a single balance. One number, one currency, no separate pools.

How Your Balance Is Composed

Your balance is calculated the same way everywhere it's shown:

tier allowance + purchased credits − used credits − reserved credits

• Tier allowance — the remaining monthly credits included with your plan.
• Purchased credits — credits you've bought on top; never expire, never reset.
• Used credits — what you've already spent this period.
• Reserved credits — credits held for an action that's in flight but not yet committed.

The system always spends monthly credits first, only dipping into purchased credits once the monthly allowance is exhausted. This is not user-configurable — and you wouldn't want it to be, because monthly credits reset and purchased credits don't.

Action Costs

Different actions cost different amounts:

Monthly Credit Allocation

Each plan includes a monthly credit pool that resets at the end of each monthly usage period — even if you bill quarterly or semi-annually. The usage period is always monthly.

A "full cycle" means: Job Analyzing (10) + CV Analyzing (15, first time only) + Document Generation (50) = 75 credits for the first application, 60 for each subsequent one. "With interview" cycles add one Interview Practice session (150 credits) on top of each subsequent document cycle (210 credits per cycle).

Interview Practice: every account gets 2 free lifetime sessions (1 coaching + 1 practice) regardless of plan. Beyond that, Pro and Premium plans include interview-practice access; Free and Starter users only have their 2 free lifetime sessions.

Monthly credits do not roll over. Unused monthly credits expire at each monthly reset.

What Is Free

These actions do not consume any credits:

• Creating an account and verifying your email
• Editing an existing CV in the CV Editor
• Downloading previously generated documents
• Downloading documents from your history
• Changing settings and preferences
• Sending feedback through the app

Feature Gating

Some features require a specific plan regardless of credits:

• English output: Pro and Premium only (Free and Starter support DE, FR, IT)
• Editable Word document (.docx) output: Pro and Premium only
• Plain-text document (.txt) output: Premium only
• Interview Practice: Pro and Premium only
• Custom tones: Pro and Premium only
• Cloud sync: Premium only
• Application Tracker: all plans (Free 5, Starter 15, Pro 50, Premium 300 entries)

Reserved Credits and Automatic Refunds

Some actions take more than a few seconds. Rather than deducting credits the moment you click "Start," the system reserves them:

1. You start an action — credits are reserved but not yet spent. They still count against your available balance so you can't double-spend.
2. You commit the action (for an interview, that means the session opens successfully and the AI's first question is ready) — the reservation becomes a real deduction.
3. You abandon the action (close the tab, delete the session, error or timeout) — the reservation is released back to your balance.

Reserved credits auto-release after 15 minutes if an action is left open without being explicitly ended. You're never charged for a failed operation.

Running Out

The app blocks actions you can't afford — no overdrafts. When you're low, you have two options:

1. Purchase a top-up pack. Purchased credits are available immediately and never expire.
2. Wait for your monthly reset. Your allowance refills at the start of every usage period.

We send a low-credit notification when your balance drops below 20% of your total available credits, so you have time to decide whether to top up or wait.

Credit Packages

If you need more credits than your monthly allotment, you can purchase credit packages as one-time purchases:

• Available to all users, including those on the free plan
• Purchased credits never expire — they remain available across billing periods
• They survive upgrades, downgrades, and cancellation. Cancel your subscription and your purchased credits remain usable as a Free user (on actions your plan allows)
• Each package is a unified credit pool — you decide how to spend them
• See the pricing page for current packages and pricing

What Happens When You Change Plans

• Upgrade — your new plan's allowance becomes available immediately. The new allowance replaces the old one; they don't stack. Purchased credits are unchanged.
• Lower-tier move — in the current product, moving down a recurring tier is handled by cancelling, waiting for the current period to end, and then resubscribing on the lower tier. When that lower-tier state takes effect, purchased credits are generally preserved — but if you've already used more credits this period than the lower tier allows, the overage is deducted from your purchased credits.
• Cancel — monthly credits stop at the end of the current billing period. Purchased credits remain, with the same overage rule as downgrades: if your usage this period exceeded the Free allowance, the overage comes out of your purchased pot.

Monitoring Your Credits

Your balance is visible in three places:

• Navigation bar — a single number, always visible.
• Dashboard — a credit card with your balance and recent usage.
• Credit usage page — a full breakdown with history, action costs, and running totals.

Tips for Saving Credits

• Edit instead of re-uploading — Modifying your CV in the editor is free. Only upload a new CV when you have a completely different file (saves 15 credits).
• Review before generating — Check your CV data and job details carefully. Regenerating costs another 50 credits.
• Download Editable Word documents (.docx) and make small edits in Word or Google Docs instead of regenerating.
• Failed operations are refunded automatically, so you never lose credits to errors.

Next Steps

• Subscription Management — Manage your plan, billing, and upgrades