How credits and licenses work on the platform

Credits and licenses are the two main resources used on exactly.ai.

• Credits pay for actions — generating images and videos, editing, upscaling, training styles, vectorization, background removal.

• Licenses cover individual images and videos for download and commercial use.

How to use credits

You need credits for:

• Generating images and videos

• Editing images in the Editing tab

• Training Private Styles (every time you train or retrain a style)

• Upscaling (for each new size)

• Background removal (once per image)

• Vectorization (every run)

On desktop, the prompt bar shows what a generation will cost before you send it. For everything else, click the balance in the top-right corner: under Your credits cover it lists the current cost of a few popular models, style training and the image tools (upscale, vectorize and remove background), and how many of each your credits cover.

Downloading an image at its own size does not cost credits. A larger size is an upscale.

Credits arrive as part of the Monthly Allocation if you are on a subscription. To top up, contact us: credits are not sold inside the product.

How to use licenses

Taking the image is the license. There is no separate purchase step and no Unlock button. The first time you do any of these to an image that carries a watermark, a license is applied to it automatically:

• Download it

• Export it as SVG (vectorization)

• Remove its background

• Upscale it

Videos work the same way: the first export of a video that carries a watermark applies a license to it.

One license covers that image or video permanently. Repeat any of those actions on it and no new license is needed.

With a license on an image you get:

• No watermark on the image

• Downloads up to 8K, including SVG vector export

• Upscale and background removal

• Personal and commercial rights — worldwide, perpetual, and royalty-free. The one exclusion is reselling the image itself as a standalone file

A licensed video loses its watermark and carries the same rights.

Once an image is licensed it stays licensed. That does not change when your plan does.

Until it is licensed, such an image carries a watermark and stays inside the platform. In the image viewer, Access reads Trial, with watermark until then and Unlimited licence after.

Credits and licenses are charged separately. Upscaling a watermarked image costs its usual credits and applies a license; upscaling one that is already licensed costs only the credits. A license permits the operation; it does not pay for it.

Your license balance

Your remaining licenses and credits are shown in the top-right corner. Click them to see how many of each are left and, if one is scheduled, the renewal date.

If you belong to an organization, licenses and credits are managed centrally: the balance in the top-right corner is your organization's. Click it to see how many licenses and credits are left of your plan, your organization's overdraft if it has one, and the renewal date if there is one. See Working in an organization for what else your team shares.

When there are no licenses or credits left, the action stops and a window opens. It says which ran out, shows what is left and the renewal date if there is one, and Contact us reaches our team. Licenses are not bought inside the product.

Which images need a license

An image or video that carries a watermark needs a license. One without a watermark needs none.

Everything you generate with exactly.ai's public models carries a watermark until it is licensed: Base Models for images and video, Artist Styles, Exactly 1.0 Agentic and exactly 1.0 edit. So do images from a Private Style you train. Some older Private Styles, and some models our team sets up for an organization, are license-free: their images never carry a watermark.

An edit of an image, or a video made from it, is a new asset. If it carries a watermark, it needs its own license, even when the original is licensed.

Images generated before 4 September 2026 keep the status they had at that point. Anything that was already free to download without a watermark stays that way, and no watermark appears on work made earlier.

Expiration & cancellation

These rules apply to your unused balance. An image that already carries a license is unaffected by all of them — that license is perpetual.

• Unused credits and licenses from a subscription stay in your balance until the plan renews. At renewal, up to one month's allocation rolls over and anything above that expires.

• If you cancel a subscription, remaining unused subscription credits and licenses are forfeited at the end of the billing period.

• Credits bought as a one-time top-up expire 12 months after purchase if unused.

• If you belong to an organization, its balance follows your organization's plan.

Rules & limitations

Credits and licenses are:

• Non-refundable

• Non-transferable: they can't be moved to another account

• Not exchangeable for money

If you belong to an organization, the balance is the organization's, not yours: every member spends from it, and it stays with the organization when someone leaves.

A license that has been applied to an image belongs to that image. It cannot be moved to a different image. A license you take as a member of an organization is held by the organization: every member can use that image, and the license stays with the organization if you leave.