Credits, Packs, and Billing

How StretchBAS billing works

StretchBAS runs on a simple prepaid credit wallet. You buy (or are granted) credits up front, and each metered action spends from the balance. There are no subscriptions to reason about per action and no surprise bills — you always know exactly what you have and what you've spent.

Your wallet is organization-scoped: it belongs to your workspace, and no other organization can see or spend it.

The free starter grant

Every workspace receives a one-time free starter grant of 3 credits the first time it uses StretchBAS. That's enough to absorb a brand and generate a couple of pieces so you can try the product before buying anything. The grant is issued once per workspace and is recorded in your ledger as a starter_grant.

What each action costs

Credits are interchangeable across features — 1 credit per metered action:

Because credits are shared across every feature, the pack names ("10 audits," "50 audits") are just a familiar way to describe pack size — those credits work for generations, scores, and packs too.

Refunds: you're never charged for failures

Every metered action is refund-protected. StretchBAS debits the credit, runs the action, and if the action fails it automatically refunds the credit. For content packs and social runs the protection is per piece, so a single failed piece is refunded while the successful ones stand. You will see both the debit and the matching refund in your ledger.

Buying credit packs (self-serve)

When you need more credits, buy a pack from the Credits tab. The available packs are:

Checkout runs through Stripe:

1. Open StretchBAS → Credits and choose a pack.
2. You're taken to Stripe's secure hosted checkout to pay.
3. On success you're returned to the workspace, and StretchBAS verifies the payment and grants your credits.
4. Your new balance and the purchase appear in the ledger.

The grant is idempotent — even if you refresh the return page or return twice, your credits are added exactly once (the purchase is de-duplicated by the Stripe session). Larger packs offer better value per credit, so if you generate regularly, Growth or Scale lowers your effective cost.

The ledger

Your ledger is an append-only record of every credit movement — starter grants, purchases, debits, and refunds — each stamped with the reason, the running balance after it, and a reference to what it was for (an audit, a generation, a Stripe purchase, and so on). Open it from the Credits tab to reconcile spend or answer "where did my credits go?" at a glance.

Example

Payne Coaching starts with the 3 free starter credits. Beau absorbs the brand (–1) and generates two pieces (–2), landing at 0. He buys the Growth pack (+50) for $199, runs a five-piece launch pack (–5), scores and refines two of them (–4), and runs two audits (–2). His ledger shows every line, and his balance reads 37 — all reconcilable in seconds.

Tips

• Right-size your pack. Occasional users do fine on Starter; teams generating weekly save more with Growth or Scale.
• Top up before big batches. A six-piece pack needs six credits — buy ahead so a batch doesn't stop early on insufficient credits.
• Reconcile with the ledger, not by memory. Every debit and refund is there.
• Editing fingerprints is free — refine your brand capture as much as you like without spending credits.

Troubleshooting

• "insufficient credits" (402). Your balance is too low for the action. Buy a pack from the Credits tab.
• "Self-serve checkout isn't enabled yet" (503). Stripe checkout isn't switched on in your workspace yet. Contact your StretchSuite admin, who can grant credits directly in the meantime.
• I paid but don't see my credits. Reopen the Credits tab so StretchBAS can confirm the Stripe session. Because grants are idempotent, confirming again won't double-charge or double-grant.
• "That checkout doesn't belong to this account" (403). The checkout session was started under a different workspace. Start checkout again from the workspace you want the credits in.