> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tako.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits & billing

> How Tako meters API usage — credits, the per-item cost field, pay-as-you-go billing, and what a 402 means.

Every Tako API call consumes **credits**. This page explains how usage is metered, how to read the `cost` fields on responses, and what happens when you run out. For current per-endpoint rates, see the [Tako pricing page](https://tako.com/pricing).

## Credits

Tako meters API usage in credits: each request to Search, Answer, the Agent, and Contents deducts credits when it is served. Billing is **pay-as-you-go**: your account holds a credit balance, and each call draws down that balance based on the endpoint and the work it performs (for example, a `deep`-effort Search costs more than the default call).

## The `cost` field

Some responses report a **`cost`** in US dollars so you can see what a piece of work cost:

* **Search / Answer** — each downloadable card carries a `content` descriptor with a `cost` (USD) for that card's inlined content.
* **Contents** — each `ContentItem` carries a `cost` (USD) for that download.

Retrieving card data via inline contents or the Contents API incurs a data surcharge. A card CSV export bills a flat `$0.001` per export plus a per-row rate that starts at `$0.01` per 1,000 rows and is higher for some premium sources; web-page text extraction bills `$0.001` per page. Read the exact per-card rate from `export_pricing` before you fetch, and see [Contents pricing](/documentation/integrating-tako/contents/pricing) for the formula and worked examples.

A `cost` of `0.0` is rare: it means the item was genuinely free — an empty payload, or an account whose row charges are waived. A card export you actually receive rows from is never `0.0`, because the per-export baseline always applies. These fields report the USD cost of the underlying work; your credit balance is drawn down accordingly.

<Note>
  When your account is billed pay-as-you-go, the request total is
  **`usage.total_cost_usd`** — always present on a metered response, and always
  the sum of the components beside it. `usage.data` is only the inline-data
  component and is omitted entirely when a request inlined none. On accounts
  that are not metered per request the `usage` key is **absent** (not `null`);
  sum the per-item `cost` values instead.
</Note>

## Running out (`402`)

When your account is out of credits, API calls return **`402`** (insufficient balance). Top up your balance from your [Tako account](https://tako.com/console), then retry — requests succeed again once your balance is positive.


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