# How does usage work?

It's important to note that **credits are only consumed when the Agents you've created are used**:

* End users who interact with your Agents never consume credits;
* You won't consume credits when testing Agents created by others.

-> This system lets you manage and optimize resource usage based on how your own creations are actually used.

### How are credits consumed?

Credits are consumed in several situations:

* **1 credit for each Agent created**;
* **1 credit for each new chat session** started with one of your Agents;
* **1 credit for each AI-generated message** from your Agents;
* **1 credit for each document page imported** into your Agent from the Import / Export section.

{% hint style="info" %}
**If you use your own API key, you won't consume credits for messages or pages — only for creating Agents and when a user opens a session with your Agent.**
{% endhint %}

### Expert Group

If you use the [**Expert Group**](/en/extensions/expert-group.md), you will consume:

* 1 credit for creating your group;
* 1 credit for opening a session with the expert group;
* 1 additional credit for each expert Agent you start a conversation with;
* 1 additional credit each time the group needs to decide which Agent to route the user's message to.

### Deep Thinking

If you use [**Deep Thinking**](/en/extensions/deep-thinking.md) in your Agents, you'll consume 3 credits for each AI-generated message.

Now that you understand how usage works, **let's see how to monitor it effectively**.


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.aisuru.com/en/analytics/usage/how-usage-works.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.