How it works
The customer picks a pack, pays through checkout or a saved card, and the credits are added once the payment is confirmed. Top-ups work alongside subscriptions, where they cover months above the allowance, and on their own in pure prepaid products, where every purchase is a top-up.
Good top-up flows appear at the moment of need: on the low-balance warning, on the error shown when an action is blocked, and in the account page. Offering a few pack sizes with a volume discount on the larger ones raises the average purchase without forcing it.
Example
A user with 40 credits left wants to run a job that costs 120. The app shows a blocked state with three packs: 500 credits for $10, 1,500 for $27, and 5,000 for $80. They buy the middle pack and their balance becomes 1,540, so the job runs and they still have 1,420 credits afterwards.
Credit top-up in Cred
Top-ups are one-time hosted checkouts for a pricing tier or a custom credit amount. A checkout sent with save_payment_method: true also saves the card, after which your server can call POST /charge-saved to top up without the customer present.
Hosted Checkout docsQuestions
- Is a top-up the same as an auto top-up?
- An auto top-up is a top-up that runs itself: a rule charges a saved card when the balance falls below a threshold. A plain top-up is started by the customer.
- Should top-ups expire?
- Purchased top-ups usually do not, because the customer paid for them specifically. Expiring paid value can also run into consumer rules: US federal rules, for example, require gift card funds to stay valid for at least five years from issue. Whether such rules cover your credits is a question for a lawyer.
- What pack sizes work best for top-ups?
- Offer three or so sizes spanning a typical week, month, and quarter of usage, and make sure the smallest pack is large enough that card fees take only a small share of its price.
