How AI credits work in DepCut, in plain terms

The DepCut editor is free to use. Credits cover the work that runs on DepCut's hosted AI models. It helps to know which actions spend them before you click, because undo cannot take a spent credit back.

What spends credits

These actions run on hosted models through your DepCut account:

• Image generation under AI Gen and Image, and custom stickers made from a prompt.
• Video generation under AI Gen and Video, including every take when you set Number of takes above x1, talking-character clips, and each render in AI Extend.
• Voiceovers and generated music under AI Gen and Audio.
• Sound effects generated in the Sound FX tab.
• Dubbing, charged by the length of the source and returned if the dub fails.
• Isolate voice and Isolate music in Quick tools, charged by the length of the video.
• Each shot of a narrated scene, once you approve the plan.
• Subtitles, which are transcribed by a hosted model.
• The assistant's hosted chat models, and any generation the assistant starts for you.

This holds wherever your project lives. A project saved On this Mac or in the Cloud uses the same hosted routes and the same credits for generation.

What stays free

• Editing: trimming, titles, effects, transitions and export.
• Browsing and using the bundled stock footage and images. The assistant checks stock first when existing media could do the job.
• Importing media from a link with the assistant.
• Planning a narrated scene and redrawing storyboard frames, before you approve the render.
• Assistant models that use your own command-line logins on a Mac with the DepCut app. They run through your own logins and use none of your DepCut credits. Any generation the assistant starts from there still spends DepCut credits.

Sign in and check your balance

Generation runs on your DepCut account. When you are signed out, the Generate image and Generate video buttons are disabled and a Sign in link sits under them.

Open your account menu to see the AI credits row with your balance. The Buy / Claim Credits button below it opens your settings, where you add credits.

When the balance runs out

A few places tell you:

• The assistant's composer shows a tab above it that reads "No credits left" with a reload credits link.
• A failed generation tile reads "No credits left, reload here".
• In a narrated scene, shots that could not render hold a still frame, and the card names the reason. After you add credits, click Retry N shots on the card to render those shots again.

Add credits in your settings, then return to the editor. The editor re-checks your balance when you come back to the tab, and the notice clears once the balance is above zero.

Spend with care

• Start with one take. Raise the count after the prompt works.
• Ask the assistant to write a prompt before you generate. A request for a prompt or script gets text in the chat and spends nothing on media.
• Review the storyboard of a scene before you approve it. Approval is the point where shot renders begin.
• Check stock first when a generic shot would do.
• Remember that undo removes a generated clip but the credits stay spent. Adjust the prompt before you try again.

Check your balance

Open your account menu in DepCut, check your AI credits, and plan your next project's generated shots on paper before you click Generate.