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Account & billing

By George Pu
• 7 articles

How do billing and credits work?

How do billing and credits work? Vinci uses a shared USD credit balance across the web app, mobile apps, API, and Vinci Code. Plan credits and purchased credits are added to that same balance. For current plan options, pricing, and included credits, see Billing & limits. Free accounts receive credit two ways: - A monthly top-off. At the start of each month, a Free account's balance is topped up to $5 automatically — no card required. The top-off brings your balance up to $5 (a balance already at or above $5 receives nothing that month), and monthly free credit expires at the end of the calendar month. - Email verification. Verifying your email grants a one-time $5 credit that lasts 60 days from the day it is granted. You can see the exact expiry dates for your own credit under Account. Purchased credits have a $10 minimum purchase and never expire. We always spend credit that expires soonest first, so nothing is wasted. Open Account in the app or the Usage page on the Vinci Platform to review your balance and usage. Usage views cover 7, 30, or 90 days, as well as a custom date range, and you can export the records as CSV. Auto top-up is optional. If you turn it on, set a monthly cap so additional credit purchases stay within the amount you choose. To change or cancel your plan, update your payment method, or download invoices and receipts, open Account and choose Manage plan, invoices & receipts on Stripe — this opens Stripe's secure billing portal for your subscription. For refunds or anything the portal doesn't cover, contact support@getsimpledirect.com. For automated monitoring, usage alerts can send balance_below and monthly_spend_above events to an HTTPS webhook. These alerts do not include conversation content. If the shared balance reaches zero, the app pauses new requests and the API returns HTTP 402 with budget_exhausted or insufficient_quota. A rate limit is different: it returns HTTP 429 and should be retried after a brief wait.

Last updated on Aug 06, 2026

How do I create or sign in to my Vinci account?

How do I create or sign in to my Vinci account? You can try Vinci for free without signing up. A free, no-signup session provides limited trial use, memories, and settings. Creating an account adds access to account-level controls and optional cross-device features. You can create a free account with: - Email and password: enter your name, email, and a password of at least 8 characters. - Google or GitHub. Vinci sends a verification email after email sign-up, but you can start chatting immediately. Verifying the address adds $5 in trial credits. Check spam or junk if the message does not arrive. To sign in, use the same method you used when registering. If you forget an email-account password, choose Reset password on the sign-in screen. The Account page shows your email, display name, credit balance, usage, plan, memories, custom instructions, device-sync setting, and API keys. API-key secrets are displayed once when created; Vinci stores a hash, and you can revoke a key immediately. Never share a full API key with support. Conversation history stays private on your device by default. Device sync is opt-in, off by default, and can be changed later. When enabled, synced data is encrypted and stored on Canadian infrastructure in Montréal. Switching sync off deletes the conversations saved to your account and cannot be undone; the feature is not required to use Vinci. If you have trouble signing in or managing an account setting, use the live-chat widget on the web app's /support page or email support@getsimpledirect.com. See Account and sign-in for profile, memory, and account-management details.

Last updated on Aug 06, 2026

Why did I run out of credits so fast?

If your credits disappeared quicker than you expected, you're probably using more than you realized — and the good news is you can see exactly where. Here's how to understand your usage and control it. Where do credits go? Credits are spent when you: - Send a message in the Vinci web or mobile app. - Make an API call to Vinci. - Use Vinci Code. The cost of each message depends on how long the response is and whether Vinci runs a web search or uses tools like weather lookups. Longer, more complex responses use more credits. The class you're on matters far more than any of that. Vinci Mezzo is the cheapest option for light everyday chat, while Vinci Forte is the default and Vinci Fortissimo costs more per token. Click the model badge at the top right of chat to switch inline, or use Settings → Personalization. If you are working with code or files, Forte works best; do not switch those tasks to Mezzo just to reduce cost. Check your usage 1. Open Account in the app, or visit platform.getsimpledirect.com. 2. Find the Usage or Usage section. 3. You can filter by date (7, 30, or 90 days, or a custom range) to see trends. On the Platform, you can also export usage to CSV to analyze exactly which messages and API calls cost what. Understand your plan For details on Vinci's plans, pricing, and included monthly credits, see Billing & limits. If you're on Free or Vinci and your credits ran out, it means you used more than your plan included — upgrading to Vinci Pro adds more monthly credits, or you can buy additional credits anytime (minimum $10 purchase). Control your spending - Use shorter prompts: vague or very long messages may trigger deeper processing and use more credits. - Disable web search if you don't need it: For questions where you already know the facts, you can ask locally without searching the internet. - Enable auto top-up with a monthly cap: This prevents surprises — set a limit on how much can be added automatically each month. - Watch your usage trends: Check your usage weekly to spot unexpected spikes early. Free accounts and trial credits If you haven't signed up, you can try Vinci with a few free messages a day — no sign-up or credit card needed. Once you create a free account, your balance is topped up to $5 automatically each month, and verifying your email adds a one-time $5 credit that lasts 60 days.

Last updated on Aug 06, 2026

Keep Vinci usage costs under control

Vinci uses one shared USD credit balance across products. Use these controls to avoid billing surprises and manage spending predictably. 1. Review your usage. Open Account in the app to see your balance, or open the Usage page on the Vinci Platform. Choose 7-, 30-, or 90-day presets, or enter a custom start and end date to track spending patterns. 2. Export a CSV. On the Platform Usage page, select the date range before exporting. Save monthly exports for budgeting or analyze them in a spreadsheet to spot changes and compare spending periods. 3. Create usage alerts. Provide an HTTPS webhook and choose an alert type. A balance_below alert fires when remaining balance crosses your threshold. A monthly_spend_above alert fires when month-to-date spending exceeds it. Alert calls contain no prompt or response content, preserving Zero Data Retention. 4. Enable auto top-up. Turn on auto top-up to add credits when balance runs low. Set a monthly cap so automatic purchases cannot grow without limit. Additional credit purchases have a $10 minimum, and purchased credits do not expire. 5. Choose complementary thresholds. Set the low-balance alert high enough to give you time to react, then configure auto top-up below it. Use the monthly-spend alert as an early warning before the auto top-up cap is reached. 6. Respond to interruptions correctly. HTTP 402 errors mean credits are exhausted; add credits or wait for auto top-up to restore your balance. HTTP 429 errors are temporary busy-time limits, not billing problems—wait briefly and retry.

Last updated on Jul 24, 2026

Track AI spending across vendors on the Vinci Platform

The AI Spend Console on the Vinci Platform (https://platform.getsimpledirect.com) shows what you spend across AI vendors — Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, and Vinci — on one dashboard, day by day. You'll find it as AI Spend in the Platform sidebar. Connect your vendors. Open AI Spend → Connect and paste an API key for each vendor you want to track. Guided steps show exactly which key to create and where. Every key is checked with the vendor before it is saved, encrypted before storage, and can never be read back — only its last four characters are ever shown again. Disconnecting a vendor erases the stored key. Your Vinci spend is included automatically, and up to 12 months of history loads in the background after you connect. Note that Anthropic does not offer a read-only admin key, so connecting Anthropic uses a full admin key — the connect page explains this before you paste anything. Read the dashboard. One chart shows every vendor's daily spend, stacked or side by side, with totals for the period, a projection at your current pace, and your largest vendor — each compared with the previous period. Pick a preset from 7 days to 12 months or a custom range; the range is part of the page address, so a shared link shows the same period. The console names days it could not fetch rather than showing them as $0, labels totals that may be incomplete, and leaves out a breakdown it cannot stand behind rather than guessing. In an organization, connected vendors and their charts are visible to members, but only an owner or admin can connect or disconnect a vendor. Organization and personal spend are kept fully separate. This is separate from the Platform Usage page, which tracks your Vinci credit balance and usage — see https://guide.getsimpledirect.com/billing for that.

Last updated on Aug 06, 2026