Credits and Budget Alerts

Track credit usage in-app, estimate costs before calling, set budget alerts, and gracefully degrade when credits run low

When to Use This

You’re building a production integration and need to:

• Track credits across requests in your application (not just rely on dashboard)
• Estimate cost before making expensive calls (Mave, Focus Groups, Video Analysis)
• Alert when usage approaches 50%, 75%, 90% of monthly allocation
• Handle 402 gracefully — show users a clear message instead of a raw error
• Pre-flight check to avoid starting expensive jobs when credits are insufficient

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Credit Costs at a Glance

Endpoint	Typical Cost	Notes
/responses	1–5 credits	Depends on tokens
/mave/chat	10–50 credits	Research complexity
/personas (GET)	0	Free
/focus-groups	50–200 credits	Sample size + questions
/video-analyses	100–500 credits	Video length
/personas (POST)	300 credits	Custom persona creation
/brand-voices (POST)	50 credits	Brand voice creation

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Pattern 1: In-App Usage Tracking

Accumulate credits_used from each response and persist it (e.g. Redis, DB) so you have real-time usage without polling the dashboard.

Python

import os
import redis
from contextlib import contextmanager

redis_client = redis.Redis.from_url(os.environ.get("REDIS_URL", "redis://localhost:6379"))
USAGE_KEY = "mavera:credits_used:current_period"

def track_credits(credits: int, workspace_id: str = "default"):
    """Increment in-app usage counter."""
    key = f"{USAGE_KEY}:{workspace_id}"
    redis_client.incrby(key, credits)
    redis_client.expire(key, 86400 * 35)  # Expire after ~billing cycle

def get_tracked_usage(workspace_id: str = "default") -> int:
    """Get accumulated credits used this period."""
    key = f"{USAGE_KEY}:{workspace_id}"
    return int(redis_client.get(key) or 0)

def chat_with_tracking(client, messages, persona_id, workspace_id="default"):
    response = client.responses.create(
        model="mavera-1",
        input=messages,
        extra_body={"persona_id": persona_id},
    )
    credits = response.usage.credits_used
    track_credits(credits, workspace_id)
    return response

Use the dashboard (app.mavera.io/settings/usage) as source of truth. In-app tracking is for real-time estimates; reconcile periodically with the API or dashboard data if available.

---

Pattern 2: Estimate Cost Before Calling

Before starting an expensive operation (focus group, video analysis), estimate the cost and compare against a threshold or remaining credits.

Python

# Conservative estimates (upper bound)
CREDIT_ESTIMATES = {
    "chat": (1, 5),
    "mave_simple": (10, 15),
    "mave_moderate": (20, 30),
    "mave_complex": (35, 50),
    "focus_group_small": (50, 75),
    "focus_group_medium": (100, 150),
    "focus_group_large": (150, 250),
    "video_short": (100, 150),
    "video_medium": (200, 350),
    "video_long": (400, 600),
}

def estimate_focus_group(sample_size: int, num_questions: int) -> int:
    """Return upper-bound credit estimate for a focus group."""
    if sample_size <= 25:
        base = 75
    elif sample_size <= 50:
        base = 125
    else:
        base = 200
    return base + (num_questions * 2)  # Rough per-question cost

def can_afford(operation: str, estimated_cost: int, remaining_credits: int) -> bool:
    """Check if we have enough credits (with 20% buffer)."""
    buffer = int(estimated_cost * 0.2)
    return remaining_credits >= estimated_cost + buffer

---

Pattern 3: Pre-Flight Check (Block Expensive Jobs)

Before kicking off a focus group or video analysis, check estimated cost vs. remaining credits. Fail fast with a clear message instead of failing mid-run with 402.

Python

class InsufficientCreditsError(Exception):
    pass


def create_focus_group_with_preflight(payload: dict, remaining_credits_fn) -> dict:
    """Create focus group only if we estimate enough credits."""
    sample_size = payload.get("sample_size", 25)
    num_questions = len(payload.get("questions", []))
    estimated = estimate_focus_group(sample_size, num_questions)
    remaining = remaining_credits_fn()

    if not can_afford("focus_group", estimated, remaining):
        raise InsufficientCreditsError(
            f"Estimated {estimated} credits; only {remaining} remaining. "
            "Please add credits or reduce sample size / questions."
        )

    return requests.post(
        f"{BASE}/focus-groups",
        headers=HEADERS,
        json=payload,
    ).json()

---

Pattern 4: Dashboard Budget Alerts

Configure alerts in the Mavera dashboard so you’re notified before you run out. No code required — just settings.

1. Go to Usage Settings

   Navigate to app.mavera.io/settings/usage

2. Set Alert Thresholds

   Enable alerts at 50%, 75%, and 90% of monthly credits

3. Add Notification Email

   Ensure the billing/ops email receives alerts

4. Optional: Workspace Budgets

   For team accounts, set per-workspace budgets at Workspace Settings > Budget

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Pattern 5: Auto-Recharge (Dashboard)

When credits run low, auto-recharge can automatically purchase more so high-priority jobs don’t fail.

1. Go to Billing

   app.mavera.io/settings/billing

2. Enable Auto-Recharge

   Toggle on “Auto-recharge credits”

3. Set Threshold

   e.g. Trigger when credits fall below 100

4. Set Recharge Amount

   e.g. Purchase 500 credits

Use auto-recharge as a safety net, not as primary capacity planning. Monitor usage trends and upgrade your plan or adjust thresholds as needed.

---

Pattern 6: Graceful Degradation on 402

When you get a 402, don’t show a generic “API error.” Return a clear message and optionally queue the request for retry after credits are added.

Python

from enum import Enum

class CreditStatus(Enum):
    OK = "ok"
    LOW = "low"
    EXHAUSTED = "exhausted"

def handle_402(error, request_context: dict):
    """Handle 402 and decide: retry later, queue, or fail user-facing."""
    # Log for ops
    logger.warning("Credits exhausted", extra={"context": request_context})

    # Option A: Return user-facing message
    return {
        "success": False,
        "error": "credits_exhausted",
        "message": "You've run out of credits. Please add more in Settings.",
        "action_url": "https://app.mavera.io/settings/billing",
    }

    # Option B: Queue for later (if you have a job queue)
    # queue.push("mavera_retry", request_context, delay_minutes=60)

---

Pattern 7: Per-Workspace Budgets (Teams)

For team accounts, set workspace-level and project-level budgets. When a budget is exceeded, requests for that workspace/project return 402 with budget_exceeded.

Setting	Description
Budget Alert	Notification when spending reaches threshold
Usage Limit	Hard cap; blocks requests when reached
Billing Email	Separate email for budget notifications

Configure at Workspace Settings > Budget.

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Metrics to Monitor

Metric	What to track
credits_used_total	Sum of usage.credits_used from all responses
credits_used_by_endpoint	Breakdown by endpoint (chat, mave, focus-groups, etc.)
402_count	Number of credit exhaustion errors
estimated_vs_actual	Compare pre-flight estimates to actual usage (for calibration)

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See Also

Credits Guide

Allocation, costs by endpoint, auto-recharge

Error Handling Patterns

Handling 402 in your error flow

Billing & Usage

Dashboard usage and alerts

Pricing

Plans and credit packages