Credits & Billing
Rendobar uses a credit-based billing system. Every job costs credits based on either a flat rate or the duration of the input/output video.
How credits work
Credits are the universal billing unit. Credit values represent dollar amounts — your balance is denominated in dollars and jobs are priced accordingly.
Credit flow
- Pre-check — Before a job is dispatched, Rendobar checks that your organization can afford the estimated cost. This does not deduct credits.
- Execution — The job runs on the execution provider.
- Debit — On completion, the actual cost is calculated and credits are atomically deducted from your balance.
- Refund — If a job fails or is cancelled, no credits are deducted (or previously deducted credits are refunded).
Plans and allocations
| Plan | Price | Included Balance | Rollover Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | $5 | $10 |
| Starter | $19/mo | $100 | $200 |
| Pro | $49/mo | $500 | $1,000 |
| Scale | $149/mo | $2,000 | $4,000 |
Each plan includes a monthly balance allocation that refreshes at the start of each billing cycle.
Cost estimates
Before submitting a job, Rendobar checks whether your balance covers the estimated cost. Estimates are defined per job type and plan:
| Job Type | Cost Model | Typical Cost |
|---|---|---|
| watermark.apply | Per minute of output | ~$1.00/min |
| transcode | Per minute of output | ~$1.00/min |
| thumbnail | Flat rate | $0.50 |
| caption.extract | Per minute of input | $0.50/min |
| caption.burn | Per minute of output | ~$1.00/min |
| compliance.moderate | Flat rate (image) | $0.10 |
| compliance.gdpr.redact | Per minute of input | $2.00/min |
| raw.ffmpeg | Per compute time | $1.00/2min |
If your balance is too low, the API returns:
{
"error": {
"code": "INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS",
"message": "Not enough credits for this job"
}
}HTTP status: 402
Rollover
Unused balance rolls over to the next month, up to a cap of 2x your monthly allocation:
- Free: up to $10
- Starter: up to $200
- Pro: up to $1,000
- Scale: up to $4,000
Balance beyond the rollover cap expires at the start of the new billing cycle.
Overage
On paid plans, if you exceed your included balance, overage costs continue to accrue at the same per-job rates. On the Free plan, jobs are rejected when balance runs out.
Usage tracking
The API provides usage data per organization:
curl "https://api.rendobar.com/billing/usage?start=2026-02-01&end=2026-02-09" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer rb_live_YOUR_KEY"Usage is tracked daily by job type, including job count, amount charged, and compute seconds.
Next steps
- Pricing page for full plan comparison
- Job Types for detailed cost breakdowns
- Quickstart to submit your first job