Credits

AgentMail uses a credit-based system for usage billing. Your plan includes a monthly credit allocation and each inbound email scan consumes one credit. API calls are always free. This keeps pricing simple and predictable.

How credits work

Monthly allocation: Your plan includes a fixed number of credits that reset on your billing date.
Inbound emails cost credits: Each incoming email that is scanned costs 1 credit, regardless of security level.
API calls are free: Reading inboxes, listing messages, sending emails, and all other API operations cost 0 credits.
Overages: If you exceed your allocation, overage credits are billed at $1 per 1,000 credits at the end of the billing cycle.
No expiration within the cycle: Unused credits do not roll over but are available until the billing date resets.
Real-time tracking: Check your balance via the dashboard or the X-Credits-Remaining response header on any API call.

Credit costs

Operation	Credits	Notes
Receive inbound email	1	Per message scanned
All API calls	0	List, get, create, send, etc.

Plan allocations

Plan	Monthly price	Credits included	Inboxes	Overage rate
Free	$0	1,000	3	Not available (hard cap)
Starter	$20/mo	1,250	10	$1 / 1,000 credits
Pro	$200/mo	12,500	100	$0.80 / 1,000 credits
Custom	Custom	Custom	Unlimited	Custom (volume discount)

What each plan unlocks

Feature	Free	Starter	Pro	Custom
L1 & L2 inboxes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
L3 & L4 inboxes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Audit logs	7 days	90 days	1 year	Unlimited
Policy management	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
PII redaction	No	No	Yes	Yes
BAA (HIPAA)	No	No	Yes	Yes
SOC 2 report	No	No	No	Yes
Dedicated IP	No	No	No	Yes
Priority support	No	No	Yes	Yes

Estimating your usage

Low volume (notification listener)

A single inbox receiving 30 emails/day:

30 messages × 1 credit = 30 credits/day
~900 credits/month — fits on Free plan

Medium volume (support bot)

5 inboxes, 200 inbound messages/day:

200 × 1 credit = 200 credits/day
~6,000 credits/month — fits on Pro plan

High volume (AI-protected support)

20 inboxes, 1,000 inbound messages/day:

1,000 × 1 credit = 1,000 credits/day
~30,000 credits/month — fits on Custom plan

Monitoring credits

Dashboard

The dashboard shows a real-time credit usage chart with:

Credits consumed today / this billing period
Projected usage for the remainder of the cycle
Alerts at 80% and 95% of your allocation

API response headers

Every API response includes:

X-Credits-Remaining: 42150
X-Credits-Used: 7850
X-Credits-Limit: 50000

Webhook alerts

Configure credit threshold alerts in Settings → Notifications to receive a webhook or email when usage crosses 50%, 80%, or 95% of your allocation.

Free plan limits

The Free plan has a hard cap of 1,000 credits. When credits are exhausted:

API calls return 402 Payment Required with a clear message
Inbound emails are queued for up to 24 hours (not lost)
Upgrade to Starter to resume immediately — queued messages are processed

{
  "error": {
    "code": "credits_exhausted",
    "message": "Monthly credit limit reached (1,000/1,000). Upgrade to Starter plan for 1,250 credits/month.",
    "upgrade_url": "https://secureagentmail.com/settings/billing"
  }
}

FAQ

Do sandbox/test API keys consume credits? No. Sandbox keys (sam_test_*) operate against isolated test data and never consume credits. Use them for development and CI/CD.

What happens if I'm on Starter or Pro and hit my limit? Overage credits are automatically added and billed at $1 per 1,000 credits at the end of your billing cycle. There is no service interruption.

Can I buy credits without a subscription? Not currently. Credits are included with plan subscriptions. We may offer pay-as-you-go in the future.

Do failed/rejected messages cost credits? Inbound messages that fail SMTP validation (malformed, over size limit) cost 0 credits. All successfully received and scanned messages cost 1 credit. Outbound messages, API calls, and all other operations are free.

Credits

On this page