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

# Billing

> Manage your plan, buy credit packs, open the billing portal, and understand what a task costs.

The Billing page is where you manage your subscription, payment details, and credit balance. Open it under **Settings → Billing**. For the underlying model — credits, runtime classes, tiers, and the admission gate — see [Billing & Credits](/concepts/billing-and-credits) and [Pricing & Tiers](/concepts/pricing-and-tiers).

## What you see

The settings pages show:

* **Billing** — your [plan](/concepts/pricing-and-tiers), payment state, monthly credit grant, remaining or owed credit balance, and billing cycle end.
* **Usage** — current-cycle model usage.

## Manage your subscription

Paid tiers are Starter ($30/mo), Pro ($75/mo), and Max (\$120/mo); Free is the default. From the Free tier you can upgrade directly to any paid tier:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Pick a plan">
    On the Billing page, choose **Upgrade to Starter / Pro / Max**. This starts a hosted checkout session.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Complete checkout">
    You're redirected to the payment provider. After paying, you return to the Billing page, which polls until your new plan is confirmed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Manage or cancel">
    Once you have a paid plan, **Manage billing** opens the billing portal to update payment details or cancel. A canceled plan stays active until the end of the current period.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  The billing portal becomes available only after your first paid checkout.
</Note>

## Switch between paid plans

Once you're on a paid plan, plan changes happen in the billing portal. Pick a plan on the Billing page and you land directly on the portal's confirmation step for that plan. **Manage billing** opens the portal overview, where you can also change plans, update your card, or cancel.

* **Upgrades apply immediately.** Stripe charges the prorated difference for the rest of the current cycle and shows the amount before you confirm. The matching share of the extra monthly credits is added to your balance right away and expires with the current cycle.
* **Downgrades take effect at your next renewal.** You keep the current plan's credits and warm slots until then. The pending change is shown, and can be cancelled, in the portal. At renewal the new plan's credits are granted and warm slots above the new limit are released.

## Buy credit packs

Credit packs are one-time top-ups on any tier. Click **Buy credits** to see the available packs and start checkout for one. The packs are:

| Pack | Credits | Price |
| - | - | - |
| `credits_100` | 100 | \$10 |
| `credits_250` | 250 | \$25 |
| `credits_500` | 500 | \$50 |
| `credits_1000` | 1000 | \$100 |

Pack credits expire 12 months after purchase, and are spent after your monthly grant (earliest expiry first).

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Web">
    Use **Buy credits** on the Billing page and complete checkout for a pack.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="CLI">
    ```bash theme={"dark"}
    aether billing checkout --credit-pack credits_250 --open
    ```

    See [`aether billing`](/cli/billing) for subscription checkout, the portal, and status polling.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Buy inference balance

Aether inference is prepaid and separate from credits: each model call an agent makes on Aether inference is charged to your organization's balance at the provider's list price, with no markup. Every new account starts with $10.00 of balance included, so your first tasks can run on Aether inference before you connect a provider account; included balance is not refundable. Top up any amount from $5 to $5,000; a processing fee of 5.5% (at least $0.80) is charged on top of the amount you add. Unused purchased balance can be refunded within 24 hours of purchase and expires a year after purchase.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Web">
    Open **Settings › Inference**, click **Add funds**, choose an amount, and complete checkout. The balance updates within a few seconds of payment.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="CLI">
    ```bash theme={"dark"}
    aether billing checkout --inference 25 --open
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## What a task costs

Running a task spends VM-runtime credits at its [runtime class's](/concepts/pricing-and-tiers) per-hour rate (Medium is the reference: 1 credit = 6 minutes). Model calls on Aether inference are charged to the [inference balance](#buy-inference-balance); calls on your own provider account are recorded but never billed. See [Billing & Credits](/concepts/billing-and-credits) for the full breakdown.

## When you're out of credits

Every task start passes through an admission gate before the agent runs. The start is refused when:

| Failure | Meaning |
| - | - |
| `credits_exhausted` | Not enough spendable credit to start — buy a credit pack or wait for your renewal. |
| `billing_blocked` | Your plan is not in a billable state — update payment details in the portal. |

A start needs at least one minute of spendable credit for the requested runtime class, so a near-zero balance cannot be exhausted on launch. A task that errors because its runtime credits or inference balance ran out shows **Buy credits** or **Add funds** in place of a retry. See [tasks and lifecycle](/concepts/tasks-and-lifecycle) for where the gate sits in the run.


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