Credits vs subscriptions on eroq — which plan actually pays off

eroq sells credits two ways: as one-off packs, or as a monthly plan that drops credits into your wallet and unlocks things a pack cannot. Both spend from the same wallet at the same flat prices, and neither expires. So the question is not "which is cheaper" in the abstract — it is which one fits how you actually render. Here is the arithmetic, then the gates, then who should pick what. (The reasoning behind flat credit pricing in the first place is its own post.)

The two ways to pay

Packs, bought once, no commitment:

• Starter — $10 for 1,000 credits
• Builder — $50 for 5,500 credits
• Scale — $100 for 12,000 credits

Plans, billed monthly, credits roll over forever:

• Hobby — $15 for 1,800 credits a month
• Creator — $49 for 6,000
• Studio — $149 for 20,000
• Team — $249 for 36,000
• Agency — $499 for 80,000

Annual billing takes 20% off any plan. Enterprise is a conversation at [email protected]. And every new account starts with 50 free credits, Motion One, every image, voice and text model, and clips up to 10 seconds — enough to find out whether you like the output before paying anything.

Price per credit, side by side

Divide and you get the real ladder:

• Starter 1.00¢ · Builder 0.91¢ · Scale 0.83¢ per credit
• Hobby 0.83¢ · Creator 0.82¢ · Studio 0.75¢ · Team 0.69¢ · Agency 0.62¢ per credit
• Annual, at 20% off: Creator about 0.65¢, Studio about 0.60¢

Read it once and a pattern jumps out: a $15 plan already matches the best pack rate, and everything above it beats every pack. What packs buy is the absence of a subscription — nothing else. So you do not choose a plan for the price per credit. You choose it for what the plan unlocks, and packs are for people whose usage is too spiky to want a monthly line.

What only a plan unlocks

Credits buy renders; plans buy capabilities. The gates, from the pricing page:

• Video engines. Motion One is on every account, free tier included, and it is the uncensored engine. Hobby unlocks Seedance 1.0 Lite and Hailuo 02. Creator and above unlock every engine — Seedance 2.5, Seedance 1.0 Pro, Kling 2.5 Turbo, Veo 3 Fast — all SFW only, moderated upstream. A locked engine answers plan_required before any billing; the engine roster shows the gate on each card.
• Clip length. Free 10 s, Hobby 15 s, Creator 20 s, Studio and above 30 s. The engine has to support the length too — Motion One renders 5 or 10 s whatever your plan; Seedance 2.5 goes to 30.
• Rate limits. Creator 2×, Studio 4× the base limits per key.
• Seats and keys. Hobby 2 seats and 10 API keys; Creator 5 and 20; Studio 15 and 50; Team 25 and 100; Agency 50 and 200. Seats share one workspace wallet.
• Queue and access. Creator gets a priority video queue; Studio gets early access to new engines.

If none of those matter to you — you render stills, or Motion One clips under 10 seconds, at your own pace — packs are a perfectly rational choice.

Three profiles, worked

The hobbyist. Ten 5-second Motion One clips (1,000 credits) and eighty images (800) a month — 1,800 exactly, which is Hobby's allowance for $15. On packs, Builder's 5,500 credits last three months for $50 — $16.67 a month, no extra engines, no 15-second clips. Hobby wins on price and on capability; if you skip a month, the credits are still there.

The creator posting shorts. Thirty 10-second clips a month is 5,400 credits on Motion One; on Kling or Seedance 2.5 it is more, and those engines need Creator anyway. Creator's 6,000 for $49 covers the Motion One version with 600 spare, unlocks every engine and 20-second clips, and jumps the video queue. The same 5,400 credits are about $45 worth of a Scale pack, with none of the rest.

The studio or agency. Three-scene films at 380 credits each, four takes on the hard scene, three clients — call it 12,000 to 20,000 credits a month, five or more people rendering, and a client-facing need for 1080p engines. Studio at $149 covers the credits with 15 seats and 4× limits; Team and Agency are the same deal with 25 and 50 seats. Annual billing on Studio brings it to about $119 a month equivalent.

Roll-over changes the math

Most subscriptions punish under-use. Here they do not: monthly credits roll over forever, and credits never expire, on plans or packs. A quiet month builds a buffer for the busy one. That removes the usual reason to under-buy — "I'll take Hobby and top up" — because Creator's surplus is not lost, it accumulates.

The one thing that can lapse is the plan itself: cancel and you keep your credits but lose the gates — engines, clip length, seats — at the end of the period.

The 3-hour welcome offer

Subscribe within three hours of signing up and the first month is 50% off. Creator becomes $24.50 for 6,000 credits — about 0.41¢ per credit, the lowest rate on the site — and the roll-over means nothing is wasted if you overshoot. It applies to the first month of a monthly plan and is not combined with the annual discount. If you already know you will subscribe, do it inside the window; the 50 free credits are for deciding, not for waiting.

Who should pick what

• Just looking. Free credits, then a Starter pack. No plan until you know your monthly number.
• Occasional and spiky. Packs — Builder or Scale. You pay a little more per credit and nothing on quiet months.
• Regular, stills and Motion One only. Hobby, unless you never use the 15-second clips and the Lite engines, in which case Scale packs are equivalent.
• Regular, video with premium engines or longer clips. Creator. This is where most people who render weekly end up.
• Teams. Pick by seats first, credits second: Studio for up to 15, Team for 25, Agency for 50. Annual for 20% off once the workload is steady.
• Larger than that. Enterprise, [email protected].

FAQ

Do plan credits expire if I don't use them?

No. Monthly credits roll over forever, and pack credits never expire either.

Can I combine a plan and packs?

Yes. Both land in the same workspace wallet; buy a pack in a heavy month without changing your plan.

What happens to my credits if I cancel?

You keep them. What you lose at the end of the period is the plan's gates — premium engines, longer clips, extra seats and keys.

See the full matrix on the pricing page, or open Film mode and spend the free 50 first.