I would like to suggest the addition of a AI Credit Top-Up feature to the Hercules platform.
Currently, whenever my available credits are exhausted, I am required to upgrade to a higher plan even when I only need a small number of additional credits. This creates unnecessary inconvenience and may result in users purchasing larger plans than actually required.
It would be highly beneficial if Hercules could provide a flexible pay-as-you-go credit top-up option, allowing users to purchase additional credits without changing or upgrading their existing subscription plan.
Benefits of this feature include:
Greater flexibility for users
Better cost optimization
Improved user experience
Reduced need for unnecessary plan upgrades
I believe many users would find this option valuable and would appreciate your consideration of this enhancement in future updates.
Thank you for your time and support. I look forward to your response.
Agreed, the ability to purchase credits as 1 off blocks would be ideal, the current implementation doesn’t allow for flexibility. Right now I’m forced to upgrade my sub, get the credits and then immediately downgrade and when reaching the point I have this month the next upgrade for me is $150 USD or $214 in my local currency when realistically I need maybe $75 USD worth of credits to finish what I want for this cycle.
Totally hear this feedback. We are actually experimenting with a new AI credit purchase model. Hoping to have it launched in the coming week or two
For anyone reading this, if you are in the final 3 days of your billing period, feel free to email us and we can offer you a one-time credit purchase. We just have to process it manually
This is great to hear and look foward to seeing something soon, I know for me it really put a stop in my momentum this month with things I wanted to do. I cant speak on behalf of all customers but for me I probably would I have still spent the amount above but feeling like I had to commit to a large block when I was unsure of what I wanted for the month really put the brakes on it for me and now I have a list of things I want to work on (that said the initatives feature is a great feature to put ideas down ready for the next cycle so thanks for that feature) which will likely have me in the same postion next billing cycle as ill blow through credits in the first couple days getting through the back log
That said, love the platfrom and all the work you guys have put it, look foward to seeing where it all goes in the near future
Also, shoutout to Arnav Dandawate from support, been incredibly helpful when Ive run into issues
What is the lowest amount you think is reasonable for us to offer to top up? $25? $50?$0? Should it change based on how many credits you’ve purchased this month?
Example: If a user has spent $5k on credits, should the lowest top up be $25, $50, or whatever the user wants?
How should we handle cheaper credit purchases at scale?
Example: currently if a user has spent $5k on credits, we actually give them more credits per dollar than when they have only spent $50
Personally, I think having a minimum floor of $25 gives flexibility to users if they just need a small amount to finish a project. However, instead of having a bonus based on the total monthly recharge, perhaps it should be based on the individual recharge amount? For example, if $25 gets you 100 credits, then maybe $50 gets you 225 credits. This gives users a reason to choose the higher credit top-ups.
I guess I partially dealt with this point above, but some kind of bonus for spending on credits would be good. In the situation you outlined, if a customer has already spent $5k, they probably have a large enough revenue stream to support what they are doing and aren’t really the audience who worries about bonus credits. Without knowing your exact user base (i.e., whether they are corporate or sole users), I feel like Hercules does a great job of helping people tinker who perhaps don’t have the revenue stream to just throw money at a project until they have a finished product or an internal tool. They might just have a modest weekly revenue stream that they can take a portion of to put towards their work.
I might add that in reference to point one, it is important to have more price points than the current subscription offers. Right now, the price jumps quite quickly. I’m not saying there should be an increment for every $10, but perhaps every $25 for the first $100, and then maybe every $50 after that?
I also think the amount of credits you can purchase ad-hoc should offer lower value than the equivalent subscription price. Presumably, subscriptions are your bread and butter. Attaching higher credit values to the subscription gives users a reason to subscribe to a higher plan, rather than just subscribing to the lowest plan and buying extra credits as they go.
Lastly, I assume that as someone gets their app to where it needs to be, their credit usage will dip, therefore reducing their subscription level anyway—I know in my case it will. Something that I think could entice someone to stay on a higher subscription is offering more hosting benefits. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I have seen, no matter what pro plan you are on, you get the same bandwidth allotment etc. Perhaps those infrastructure resources could scale along with the subscription tier?
We are finalizing what we think we will do now, but directionally i think it will look like this:
Subscription - a monthly subscription for access to the platform + some included AI credits + some included cloud credits
AI credits - buy ai credits as you go in chunks of $25, $50, $100, $200. Discount based on TOTAL AI credit spend not individual spend (e.g. if you buy $200 one time you don’t get a discount but if you spend $990 and then do $25 you will get a discount as you go over a $1000 tier
Cloud credits - buy cloud credits as you go in chunks, same as today
This really moves us into a platform subscription + usage consumption model
Again, this will be an experiment for new users. We will see how it goes and if it works well, may transition everyone over to it
You mentioned new users, I presume current users will still gain access to purchasing credits?
What are you doing in relation to stopping someone from just going on a much smaller subscription and just purchasing credits as they go? Will subs be more attractive in terms of credits etc?
We will start with new users then ultimately open up to existing. This would be quite a large change to our pricing and we need to make sure it works correctly before we begin
Subscription - we are trying to move away from bundling all of our pricing into one mega subscription. Instead, thinking of the subscription as more entitlement based. e.g. if you want access to X feature you have to be on the Pro plan, Y feature is the Business plan. Then you purchase AI credits separately
