Usage, Storage & Credits

This section teaches you how Backbuild meters usage and how to stay in control of it. After reading it you will know exactly what your plan includes for free, what draws credits, what happens when an allowance or balance runs out, and how to read every number on the Billing & Usage screen. The model is deliberately simple, and it has one headline rule: Backbuild can never send you a surprise bill.

The Model in One Minute

Your subscription buys your plan's features plus a set of monthly free allowances. Beyond those allowances, everything metered draws from a single prepaid pool of universal usage credits. One pool, one currency, organization-wide. There are no separate meters to buy, no add-on SKUs, and no per-feature bills.

Diagram of the one-pool credit model. Plan-included credits and credit packages flow into a single pool of universal usage credits, and arrows lead out to every metered class: built-in AI models, containers and virtual workers, Studio audio, outbound email overage, file storage overage, database storage overage, and Real-Time Session Minutes overage. A bracket underneath reads: strictly prepaid, nothing outside this pool can ever be billed.
One pool in, one pool out. Every metered activity draws from the same prepaid balance, and nothing can bill you from outside it.

Three rules govern everything in this section:

  • Strictly prepaid. A metered action that would cost more than your available credits is refused, cleanly and with a clear message. Backbuild never performs the work and bills you afterward. Your maximum possible monthly spend is your subscription plus the credit packages you explicitly chose to buy. Nothing else exists.
  • Allowances first. Every plan, including Free, includes monthly free allowances: Real-Time Session Minutes, file storage, database storage, and outbound email sends. Credits are only touched by usage beyond an allowance. Many small organizations never spend a credit.
  • Warnings before blocks. You are warned when you approach a limit, and blocked only when you cross it without credits to cover the difference. Reads, exports, and deletes always keep working. Buying credits lifts a block; you are never locked out of your own data.

What Is Free and What Is Metered

The question behind most usage anxiety is simply "what costs something?" Here is the complete inventory. If an activity is not in the metered column, it does not draw credits, full stop.

Metered (draws credits beyond any allowance)Never metered
Built-in AI models (chat, assistant, automations using platform AI) Viewing, reading, and searching your content
Containers, remote desktops, and virtual workers Downloading and exporting your data
Studio audio: speech-to-text and text-to-speech Deleting content (deletes free up allowance)
Outbound email beyond your plan's included sends Everyday editing inside your allowances
File storage beyond your plan's allowance Idle time in any app (only active work meters)
Database storage beyond your plan's allowance AI usage through your own provider keys (bring your own keys)
Real-Time Session Minutes beyond the free 10,800 per month Receiving email

Free allowance amounts per plan live on the pricing page, which is always the canonical source for current numbers. As one anchor: every plan, including Free, gets 10,800 free Real-Time Session Minutes each month, which is 180 hours of active sync time.

Your First Five Minutes: Check Your Balance

Before anything else, learn where your numbers live. Open your organization's Billing & Usage screen: it lives at /billing under your organization in the app, and every usage banner and limit message links straight to it. It shows your credit balance, your recent usage broken down by category, and your storage meters, all on one page.

The Billing and Usage screen on a healthy organization, with three numbered callouts. Callout 1 marks the credits remaining figure at the top of the Credits and storage card, callout 2 marks the billable usage breakdown card with its time window selector and per-category rows, and callout 3 marks the two storage meters for file storage and database storage, both showing OK status.
The Billing & Usage screen: your credit balance (1), the billable usage breakdown (2), and both storage meters (3) on one page.

Everything on that screen is explained meter by meter in The Billing & Usage Screen. If a number there ever surprises you, the screen resolves it: every credit movement is recorded with a type, a time, and a category, the breakdown attributes billable usage per category over the window you choose, and storage is measured on its own meters. Nothing deducts silently.

Where to Go Next

Universal Usage Credits What a credit is, what one buys, packages, rollover, included plan credits, and how overage settles. Real-Time Session Minutes What counts as active sync time, the free 10,800 minutes, and what happens beyond them. File Storage vs Database Storage Which pool your data lands in, the rates, and how to free up space. Warnings, Caps, and Running Out The warning ladder, what a block actually stops, what always keeps working, and the fastest ways back. The Billing & Usage Screen A card-by-card tour, the usage breakdown, banners, and the publisher usage report.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Backbuild ever charge my card for overage automatically?
No. There is no overage billing of any kind. Usage beyond an allowance draws prepaid credits, and when credits run out, new metered actions are refused rather than billed. The only charges that can ever reach your payment method are the subscription and credit packages you explicitly purchased.

Is the free plan enough to run a small operation?
Often, yes. Free includes the full workspace app suite, 1 GB of file storage, 25 MB of database storage, 500 outbound emails per month, and 10,800 Real-Time Session Minutes per month. You only need credits when you use the built-in AI models, run containers or virtual workers, or grow past those allowances. See the pricing page for the full plan comparison.

Do I need a credit card to start?
No. Signup is free with no plan selection and no card. Credits are an optional monthly package you add only if and when you need them, on any plan including Free.

Does my free account expire?
Only through long inactivity. A free account with no activity for 6 consecutive months receives a deactivation notice; if another 30 days pass with no activity, the account is deleted and its data is permanently wiped. Signing in at any point during that time keeps the account active.