Credits don't confuse people, hiding the per-action cost does

We went with credits because it's the only model that survives routing across a dozen models with different per-token costs. Seats don't work when one user's afternoon costs more than another user's month.

What broke wasn't the price, it was that people wouldn't press the button. If you can't tell whether a run costs 1 credit or 40, not running it is the safe move, and a tool nobody runs churns quietly. The fix was putting the cost of that specific action next to the button, before it happens, not on a pricing page.

Two things I'd argue about. Rounding up is worse than it looks, a 1 credit minimum on a 0.2 credit action reads as a scam the tenth time someone notices. And free tiers priced in credits teach people to be frugal during exactly the week you want them being reckless.

The counterargument I hear most is that credits are just a bad unit and you should charge flat and eat the variance. That works right up until one power user costs more than ten subscriptions.