Fountain's AI products run on one shared system of agentic credits. Each product, such as Cue or Sam, uses credits only when it completes real work, and your balance, usage and purchases for every product live in one place: Credits & Usage.
This article explains how credits work for each product, how your balance is organized, and what happens when it runs out.
Pay Only for Outcomes
Cue and Sam both use an outcome-based pricing model. You pay for what gets done, not for how long it takes or how many steps are involved, and an attempt that doesn't complete costs nothing.
✅ Ask questions freely | Guidance, how-to help, and explanations from Cue are always free |
✅ Explore without fear | Iterating, refining, and changing direction costs nothing |
✅ Pay only for outcomes | Credits are used only when a product successfully completes real work |
✅ No surprises | Fixed prices per outcome type, recorded in your credit history |
✅ No charges for failures | If a task or call doesn't complete, it costs nothing |
How Cue Uses Credits
Cue is available to everyone on your team at no cost for help, guidance, and support. Credits are deducted only when Cue successfully completes real work on your behalf, like running an analysis, updating records, or generating a report.
What's always free
Asking "how do I…" or "what does this mean?"
Getting explanations, guidance, and recommendations
Exploring options and iterating on your approach
Any attempt that doesn't complete successfully
What uses credits
Credits are used when Cue successfully completes a meaningful action: reading and analyzing your account data, creating or updating entities, running bulk operations, generating documents, and more.
A single Cue conversation can complete one or several tasks. Credits are deducted per task, once it's done.
Scheduled Task Billing
Scheduled tasks are charged the same way. Each run is billed on the outcomes it completes, so a task that generates a report every week draws credits every week. A run that does not complete costs nothing. Because a scheduled task runs whether or not you are watching, check what one run costs in your credit history before setting it to a daily frequency.
Credit Usage Example
Investigating a spike in rejections may complete two tasks: a diagnostic and a strategic plan. Each task is charged once it's done, and you can review the full breakdown in your credit history.
Cue Credits Per Task
Support and guidance are always free. Every other category uses credits, and the cost depends on the type of outcome. Your credit history shows exactly how many credits each task used.
Category | What Cue does |
Support & Guidance (always free) | Answers "how do I…" questions; explains a setting or concept |
Data & Analysis | Runs data queries; generates reports and dashboards; diagnoses root causes across metrics; produces strategic analysis with prioritized recommendations |
Setup & Configuration | Creates a job, location, shift, or role; updates an existing entity; configures a workflow or setting; completes multi-step setup within a product |
Platform Setup | Sets up the platform on its own or together with one or more products |
Bulk Operations | Creates or updates entities in bulk; runs bulk actions with selection logic or across multiple products |
Document Generation | Generates a document, such as a letter, form, report, or compliance document |
Support Diagnosis & Fixes | Diagnoses an issue using account data; fixes a configuration or workflow |
Credits per Task Notes
Support & Guidance is always free. Questions, explanations, and guidance never use credits, however long the conversation runs.
You're only charged for successful outcomes. If Cue attempts a task and doesn't complete it, no credits are deducted.
Data volume may affect cost. For data and analysis tasks, credit usage may vary with the number of records Cue processes.
Bulk operations are priced per operation, not per record. Whether Cue updates a handful of entities or thousands, the credit cost is the same.
A single conversation can complete multiple tasks. Credits are deducted per completed task, so a conversation that produces several outcomes shows each one separately in your credit history.
Use Cue without credits
Cue runs in Light version when it has no credits available to spend. This happens when Cue's own credits and your AI credits are both used up and overages are off or your overage limit is reached, or when your role is configured not to consume credits. A Light version badge appears at the top of the Cue workspace.
You can still ask Cue about how Fountain works, what a metric means, or how to complete a task. If you ask it to perform an action, it declines, explains that the action requires available credits, and provides manual steps so you can complete the task yourself. To restore full Cue functionality, add credits from Credits & Usage.
How Sam Uses Credits
Sam uses credits only when a check-in call is completed. Each completed call uses a fixed number of credits, and voicemails and calls that go unanswered never use credits. For what counts as a completed call, see Use Sam.
Every completed call appears in your credit history, so you can always see what each call cost.
How Your Credit Balance Works
Your balance is split between shared credits and credits set aside for specific products:
AI credits are shared. Any AI product can use them.
Product credits are set aside for one product, such as Cue or Sam.
Each product uses its own credits first. When those run out, it draws from AI credits.
Overages Apply to Every Product
Turn on overages so your AI products keep running when your balance reaches zero. Overage usage is billed afterward. Your account has one overage setting, and it applies to all your AI products.
Overages on: when your total balance reaches zero, your AI products keep running up to your maximum overage limit, and the overage usage is billed afterward.
Overages off: when your total balance reaches zero, your AI products pause until credits are added.
Credit Packs & Pricing
Credit packs are sold in tiers so you can match your purchase to your expected usage. Current pack sizes, per-credit rate, and total prices are shown when you buy credits from Credits & Usage. Credits can be added to AI credits, where any AI product can use them, or set aside for a specific product.
Credit Expiration
Credits you buy are valid for 12 months. Credits from your contract or from a promotion follow their own terms. You can see each grant’s expiry date in your purchase history in Credits & Usage.
Manage Your Credits
Credit and billing settings live in Credits & Usage, which you can open from the left navigation or from Settings. From there you can:
See your current balance, split between AI credits and each product
Review credits used and hours saved for each product
Review a record of every credit-consuming action across your AI products
Buy credits and manage billing settings, including overages and notifications
Review your purchase history
Credit Usage Tracking
Every outcome an AI product completes is logged, so you can always see what each product did, when, and how many credits it used.
Access & Permissions
Free support from Cue is available to everyone, while using credits and managing billing are governed by specific permissions.
To configure these settings, navigate to Settings → Roles & Permissions and follow the same process used for other Fountain permissions.
Permission | What it allows | Default |
Free support | Ask questions, get guidance, and explore options without using credits | All users |
Consume credits | Use Cue's advanced capabilities and consume account credits | All users by default; configurable by role |
Manage credits | Add payment methods and purchase credit packs | Admins only by default; configurable by role |
View credit history | View usage and billing history without managing payment methods | Admins only by default; configurable by role |
Credits & Usage is available to users with the Manage credits permission when your account has Cue or Talent Agents.
Only users with the Can manage Talent Agents permission can activate or pause Sam check-ins. Admins have this permission by default.
Cue Access Controls
Cue strictly respects Fountain's existing access controls. Permissions are additive, not overriding. For example, if a user has read-only access to a specific product in Fountain, they can use Cue to query that data, but they cannot use Cue to modify it, regardless of their credit or billing permissions.
For questions not covered here, contact Fountain Support or the Customer Success team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I pay per message or question?
Do I pay per message or question?
No. Conversations with Cue are always free. You pay only when Cue successfully completes meaningful work.
What if Cue tries something and it doesn't work?
What if Cue tries something and it doesn't work?
Failed or incomplete outcomes cost nothing.
Can I set a spending limit?
Can I set a spending limit?
Yes. Your account's overage setting caps usage beyond your balance for all your AI products, and billing notifications alert you when your balance drops.
Can I turn off credits for specific roles?
Can I turn off credits for specific roles?
Yes. Admins can enable or disable credit consumption by role in Settings → Roles & Permissions.
Is pricing per record for bulk operations?
Is pricing per record for bulk operations?
No. Bulk operations have a fixed cost regardless of how many records are affected.
Can Cue access products or data a user doesn't have permission to?
Can Cue access products or data a user doesn't have permission to?
No. Cue always operates within the permissions the user already has in Fountain.
Where can I see what Cue did and what it cost?
Where can I see what Cue did and what it cost?
Credits & Usage keeps a record of every credit-consuming action, which you can filter by product. If a charge looks wrong, you can request a refund there.
What happens if I run out of credits mid-conversation?
What happens if I run out of credits mid-conversation?
Behavior depends on your account's overage setting, which applies to all your AI products. With overages on, paid features continue up to your maximum overage limit, and the overage usage is billed afterward. With overages off, paid actions pause until credits are added. Free support (questions, guidance and explanations) remains available either way.
Do scheduled tasks use credits?
Do scheduled tasks use credits?
Yes. A scheduled task is charged like any other Cue work: credits are deducted per completed outcome on each run, and a run that does not complete costs nothing. A weekly report task draws credits weekly. You can see each run in your credit history alongside the rest of your Cue activity.
Do AI products share credits?
Do AI products share credits?
Yes and no. Credits set aside for a specific product, such as Cue or Sam, are used only by that product. AI credits are shared, and any product draws on them once its own credits are used up.
Can I choose which product gets the credits I buy?
Can I choose which product gets the credits I buy?
Credits can be added to AI credits, where any AI product can use them, or set aside for a specific product.
Do Sam voicemails or unanswered calls use credits?
Do Sam voicemails or unanswered calls use credits?
No. Sam uses credits only for completed calls.
Where can I see how much each product has used?
Where can I see how much each product has used?
Credits & Usage shows credits used and hours saved for each product.