How Credits Work

Credits are what you spend to run analyses. Your plan covers a set number of analyses each month, and you can buy extra Credits any time while you have an active paid plan. Running something new uses Credits; looking back at work you have already done never does.

Each plan has its own monthly Credit allowance:

• Scout, a complete starting point.
• Hunt, everything in Scout + room to work.
• Scale, for large sellers, agencies & high-volume usage.
• Enterprise, a custom option for tailored needs.

Every plan gives you all features. The only difference between plans is how many Credits you get each month.

Two things sit in your account, and they behave differently:

• Your monthly allowance, included with your plan. It is the level of use your plan covers for the month. It resets on your renewal date. On a monthly plan unused Credits don't carry over; on an annual plan, up to one month's unused allowance carries over to the next month, within the limits in section 5. You're paying for access at that level of use, not buying a stock of Credits.
• Your Credit balance, Referral Credits you have earned, and Top-up Credits you have bought. These never expire while your account is active, and are never reset. Your account stays active for as long as it exists and hasn't been deleted, cancelling your plan, or dropping back to the free version after an unpaid renewal, doesn't change that.

Keeping them separate means the Credits you paid for on top are always protected.

Two other kinds can sit in your account for a while: your free signup grant (section 11), which expires 30 days after you register (time your account spent scheduled for deletion is added back), and any Account credit we add as a goodwill or promotional credit, which expires on the date set when we add it (your account shows the soonest such date). Neither has a refund value.

Uses Credits today:

• Niche Discovery
• Viability
• Profitability
• Deep Dive
• Variation Analysis
• HTS Code finding
• Product Blueprint
• CSV upload

Free today:

• Calculator+
• Editing numbers in Profitability
• Viewing past work: Recent Searches, saved analyses, history, and any scores or data you have already generated

In short: bringing new data in or creating something new costs Credits; looking at what you already have doesn't.

New features

We're always building. Some new features will use Credits, others will be free, we'll tell you which before you use them, and the app always shows the exact cost of anything before you run it.

Features labelled beta are ones you can try early, before they're finished. They may be rough, may change, and may disappear. We'll always say when something is in beta, and if a beta feature fails we return any Credits it used.

Adding a new feature never reduces your allowance or changes what you already have.

If we ever need to make something that's currently free start using Credits, that's a different thing: we'll tell you at least 30 days beforehand, and if it meaningfully reduces what you get from SKUASCOUT you can terminate free of charge within 30 days, and we return everything you have paid in advance for the rest of your term, see Terms §8.

Optional add-ons

Some analyses have optional extras. They're all on by default, and you can switch any of them off before you run, the cost drops accordingly.

Inside Profitability:

• Find Suppliers, matches your product to suppliers and estimates sourcing cost
• HTS & Tariff research, identifies the HTS code and duty rate automatically

Inside Deep Dive:

• Patent & Compliance research, surfaces potentially relevant patents and the regulatory standards that may apply. Switch it off and you still get the competitor analysis, review mining, SWOT and verdict

Find Suppliers accounts for 15 credits of a Profitability run, HTS & Tariff research for 5, and Patent & Compliance research for 10 of a Deep Dive. Switch any off and the run costs that much less. Before you confirm, the app shows the total and how it breaks down, so you can see exactly what each part adds. If you'd rather set the tariff yourself, uncheck the HTS research and enter it manually.

HTS Code finding is also available as a standalone tool. Find Suppliers currently runs only inside Profitability.

What each analysis costs

Most analyses cost a fixed number of Credits. The few that vary do so with what you choose before the run: an optional extra left switched on, or how many listings you ask us to look at. Never with the size of your catalogue. Our Pricing Terms show the figure for each type, and the range where there is one, so you know what your allowance buys before you subscribe.

Before you run anything, the app shows you the exact cost of that specific action. You are never charged for something you haven't confirmed.

If those costs change

Our own costs move, AI providers, data sources, Amazon's platform. If we need to increase what an analysis costs, we'll tell you at least 30 days beforehand by email.

An increase applies from the date in that email, to every account, on monthly and annual plans alike. It doesn't change how many Credits you hold or when they expire, your plan's allowance, or an analysis you've already run.

If an increase meaningfully reduces what you get, you can terminate free of charge within 30 days, and we return everything you have paid in advance for the rest of your term, see Terms §8.

If an analysis needs more Credits than you have, you won't be able to start it, but you can choose a plan or upgrade, and on an active paid plan you can also buy a Top-up pack. Nothing runs and nothing is charged unless you choose it. You'll never be surprised by an extra charge at the end of your cycle.

Credits are spent in order of expiry: whichever expire soonest are used first.

• Credits with an expiry date are used first: your monthly allowance, your free signup grant while it lasts, and any Account credit. Among these, the soonest to expire goes first.
• Credits with no expiry date are used after those: Referral Credits, then Top-up Credits, oldest purchase first.

That way the Credits you paid for are always used last.

Your allowance belongs to the month it was issued for. On a monthly plan, whatever is left when that month ends lapses; on an annual plan, up to one month's allowance carries over into the next month and is spent before that month's own allowance, and anything above that lapses. The limit is one month's allowance of the plan you are on at that month's refresh, so after a move to a smaller annual plan at your renewal it is the smaller plan's allowance, and nothing carries over into a monthly plan. Nothing carries over once your subscription ends, whether it ends because you cancel or because a renewal payment did not go through within the retry period (section 10). Credits carried over never count toward what we deduct if you withdraw (Terms §7). A fresh allowance of your plan's monthly amount starts on the renewal date. Referral and Top-up Credits are never reset.

Renewal, payment and allowance reset dates are shown in UTC and marked (UTC), the same dates your emails give; trial expiry dates are shown in your local time.

• If an analysis fails before it delivers its result, whatever the cause, we return the Credits. We check inputs before spending anything, so most problems with an input are caught before you're charged; if one only shows up once the analysis is running, the run stops, the Credits come back, and you get a clear error explaining what went wrong.
• If you cancel an analysis after it has started, the Credits are returned, as long as there was a live run to interrupt. A run that already finished and delivered its result keeps its charge.
• A run that completes keeps its charge, including a search that finds no niche matching your criteria.
• Credits that come back keep their expiry date. If it passed before they came back, they lapse as they would have, except that on an annual plan, allowance Credits from the month that has just ended join the allowance carried over into the new month, within the limits in section 5.

You can buy extra Credits any time while you have an active paid plan. Top-ups are not available during the free trial or without a plan. Top-up packs come in three sizes, and a bigger pack costs less per Credit. Each pack has one flat rate for the whole pack; the rate does not change part-way through. Every pack, its price and its rate are shown in the Pricing Terms.

A Top-up never counts as a plan change, and Top-up Credits never expire. They stay in your account and you can keep spending them, including after a cancellation or an unpaid renewal.

You can also buy a Top-up during a payment retry period, one way to keep working while you sort out your card.

Change your plan as often as you like. There is no limit, in either direction. A change cannot be made while your renewal is stopped or a payment is outstanding; an upgrade cannot be made for a short while after a new month of your plan starts; and if a discount makes an upgrade's credit larger than the new price, we make that upgrade for you by hand: contact support. Upgrades start the day you make them; downgrades wait for the end of the period you have paid for.

Upgrades: a bigger monthly plan, monthly to annual, a bigger annual plan

An upgrade starts when you confirm it and the payment goes through: a new billing period starts that day, your billing date becomes that day, and the new plan's allowance replaces the old one (on an annual plan, the first month's allowance, with a refresh on that same day each month after). Moving from monthly billing to annual is an upgrade at any tier: if the annual plan is smaller, your allowance becomes its monthly allowance from that day, and we say so before you confirm.

You pay the new plan's price for its first period, less a credit for the plan you leave: the unused allowance Credits of your old plan, each at its Credit rate (Terms §7.3) or at what it cost you if that is less, and on an annual plan the months of your term not yet delivered, each at one twelfth of the annual price you paid. Those Credits are part of the payment, so they leave your balance when you confirm. Only the allowance Credits of your old plan are counted, carried Credits included; Top-up, Referral and free Credits and Account credit are never counted and stay yours. We show you the credit and the exact amount before you confirm. If a discount on your current term makes that credit larger than the new price, we make the change for you by hand: contact support.

Example. You are on Scout ($49.99 a month, 1,000 Credits) from July 1. On July 10 you move up to Hunt ($99.99 a month) with 400 Scout Credits unused. At the Scout rate those 400 Credits are worth $20.00, so on July 10 you pay $99.99 minus $20.00 = $79.99 and your 2,500 Hunt Credits follow. From then on you are billed on the 10th.

If your bank asks you to confirm the payment, the upgrade waits until you do. Meanwhile your current plan stays as it is, the Credits counted in the price are set aside, and you can cancel the upgrade under Billing to have them back. An upgrade not paid within 23 hours, or by the end of the period you are in if that comes first, lapses and nothing is charged. While one upgrade waits, no other plan change can be made.

Each upgrade has its own 14 days. Because you pay for it, an upgrade carries its own 14-day right of withdrawal if you are a consumer in the EU, the EEA or the UK, running from the day you pay it, separate from any window on your subscription. Withdrawing undoes it: we keep the value of the new plan's Credits you used (at its price, never more than one month of it), taken first from the money you paid and then from the old plan's Credits counted in the price, and give back the rest; your previous plan returns with its renewal date moved later by the time the upgrade lasted. Where we have terminated your access for a reason other than your breach, withdrawing does not undo it. See Terms §7.3.

Downgrades: a smaller plan on the same billing interval, or annual to monthly

A move to a smaller plan on the same billing interval, or from annual billing to monthly, takes effect at your next renewal: on a monthly plan, the end of the month you have paid for; on an annual plan, your annual renewal, because you have paid for that plan for the year. Nothing is charged when you make it and your billing date stays where it is. Until then you keep your current plan and its Credits, and there is no refund for unused time. From that day you pay the new price and receive the new allowance.

On a monthly plan, allowance Credits do not carry over, so whatever is left of the month's allowance ends with the month. Your Top-up and Referral Credits are untouched.

Example. You are on Hunt from July 1 and choose Scout on July 10. Nothing is charged on July 10, and you keep Hunt and its Credits for the rest of July. On August 1 you are billed the Scout price and receive the Scout allowance.

Changed your mind about a scheduled change?

Cancel it any time before it takes effect, from your Account. Nothing was charged and nothing was granted, so cancelling simply leaves you where you were.

Stopping renewal cancels a scheduled change; see section 9.

Nothing changes right away. You keep your allowance until the end of the period you've paid for. After that the subscription expires and its monthly Credits go with it.

Your Referral and Top-up Credits stay in your account, because those never expire.

If a downgrade is scheduled, stopping renewal cancels it, and we name it before you confirm. Turning renewal back on does not restore it, but you can schedule it again from your Account. Stopping renewal also cancels an upgrade that is still waiting for its payment. Stop renewal is under Billing in your Account.

Nothing happens abruptly. You enter a retry period of up to 14 days, during which our payment processor retries automatically and we email you to update your method.

During that time:

• Your monthly allowance resets on the original renewal date as usual, so until payment goes through you won't have allowance Credits for the new cycle. On an annual plan, any unused allowance carried over under section 5 arrives with the new allowance.
• Your Referral and Top-up Credits stay active.
• You keep full access to your account. We don't lock you out, you just can't run new analyses unless you have Credits in your balance.

Once payment succeeds you receive the whole month's allowance, with fewer days left to use it, and your billing date does not change. If you had already asked us to cancel, the period you have paid for still runs to its end, and nothing renews after it.

If payment doesn't succeed within the retry period, your subscription ends and your account reverts to the free version: you keep your access and any Credits in your balance, and can resubscribe any time.

During the retry period you can't upgrade or downgrade, update your payment method first. Cancellations and Top-ups remain available.

New accounts start with 250 free Credits, no card required. They work like any other Credits. If you signed up through someone's referral link, you get 250 bonus Credits on top, 500 in total, double the standard grant; see the Referral Program Terms for when a bonus is reviewed first.

The free grant is once per person, not once per account: an account that replaces one you deleted starts without it.

They're valid for your first 30 days after registering, running on UTC from the moment you sign up (time your account spent scheduled for deletion is added back). Anything unused expires. To keep going after that, pick a plan.

We never ask for a card and never charge you at the end of the trial. Top-up packs are for paid plans, so they are not available during the trial; any Top-up Credits already in your account stay there after it ends.

Annual plans use the same Credit logic, with one addition: a monthly allowance is allocated every month, and up to one month's unused allowance carries over to the next month, within the limits in section 5, and is spent before that month's own allowance. The other differences are price (annual is cheaper) and how you pay (once a year, upfront).

On an annual plan, Credits refresh on the same day of each month as your original subscription date. Subscribe on July 15 and your Credits reset on the 15th of every month.

If you subscribed on a day that doesn't exist in a given month, the 29th, 30th or 31st, your Credits reset on the last day of that month instead, then go back to your usual date the following month. Subscribe on January 31 and your February reset falls on the 28th, with March back on the 31st.

Switching from monthly to annual

An upgrade, at any tier (section 8). It starts the day you confirm it and the payment goes through: your annual term starts that day, with the next renewal twelve months later and a monthly Credit refresh on that same day each month. You pay the annual price less the credit for your unused monthly allowance Credits, and we show you the exact figure before you confirm. If the annual plan is smaller than your monthly one, its allowance applies from that day.

Switching from annual to monthly

Works like a downgrade, at the end of your paid annual period. You keep your annual plan and all its benefits until then. There's no refund for unused months. Before you confirm, we show you the monthly price you will pay from then on.

Upgrading within an annual plan

Moving to a bigger annual plan starts a new annual term the day you confirm it and the payment goes through. You pay the new annual price, less the credit for what your current term has not yet delivered: the months still to come, each at one twelfth of the annual price you paid, and the allowance Credits of the current month you have not used, carried-over ones included, each at your plan's Credit rate or at what it cost you if that is less.

Example: Hunt annual at $959.88 a year ($79.99 a month, 2,500 Credits a month), moving up to Scale annual at $1,919.88 in the third month of the term, with 9 months still to come and 1,000 of this month's Hunt Credits unused.

• The 9 months still to come: 9 × $79.99 = $719.91
• The 1,000 unused Hunt Credits, at $79.99 for 2,500 Credits: $32.00
• Your credit: $751.91
• You pay $1,919.88 minus $751.91 = $1,167.97

Your Scale term then runs for a year from that day, starting with the first month's Scale allowance, and your billing date becomes that day, with the next renewal a year later. That is the exact calculation, not a rounded illustration of one, and we show it to you before you confirm.

Because money changes hands, this change carries its own 14-day right of withdrawal if you are a consumer in the EU, the EEA or the UK, running from the day you pay it, separate from any window on the subscription itself. See Terms §7.3.

Downgrading within an annual plan

Takes effect at the end of your current annual period: annual downgrades wait for the annual renewal because you have paid for that plan for the year. You keep everything until then.

Automatic annual renewal

Your plan renews automatically for another 12 months at the same price, unless we tell you otherwise at least 30 days beforehand. We'll email you at least 30 days before renewal with the date and the exact amount, unless you turn renewal back on, or restore your account, after that email would have gone out.

You can turn renewal off any time in your account settings, in no more steps than it took to subscribe.

If an annual payment fails

Same as monthly: a retry period of up to 14 days, automatic retries, and your Referral and Top-up Credits stay available throughout.

If you refer someone new to SKUASCOUT and they subscribe using your link, you earn 500 Referral Credits straight away and can use them immediately. Someone who has had an account with us before doesn't count as a new referral, even if they deleted it and signed up again. They're provisional for 14 days, if the person you referred changes their mind and withdraws in that window, we remove them again. We also remove them if the payment behind them is refunded in full in that window. We only ever take Credits from your Referral balance, never from your allowance or from Credits you paid for.

Referral Credits aren't refundable and have no cash value.

Referral Credits are their own balance. They don't expire while your account is active, and they're spent after your monthly allowance but before any Credits you paid for. Because you didn't pay for them, they aren't part of any refund.

Reward amounts, who qualifies, monthly limits and the fair-use rules are in our Referral Program Terms.

A failed renewal payment or a cancellation never costs you access. You can still log in, view previous analyses, browse your scores and data, and use any Referral or Top-up Credits you have.

Apart from the grounds in Terms §16, such as a breach of the Terms or a risk to the Service or to others, the only time we close an account you haven't asked us to close is if you stop using SKUASCOUT entirely: after 24 months without a sign-in, and only after emailing you at least 30 days beforehand. Signing in is enough to keep it open.

Your 14-day right to change your mind, how refunds are calculated, and what happens afterwards are all in Terms of Service §7.

The short version:

• First 14 days: if you are a consumer in the EU, the EEA or the UK, you can withdraw and get your money back, less the value of the Credits you used from that purchase (for a plan or an upgrade, never more than one month's price: one twelfth of the price on an annual plan). Withdrawing from an upgrade also gives back the old plan's Credits counted in its price, less any part of the deduction the money did not cover, and returns your previous plan. If you have upgraded, withdraw from the latest upgrade first and from the subscription last. Where we have terminated your access for a reason other than your breach, Terms §7.3 and §7.4 set out what a withdrawal refunds, and an upgrade is not undone.
• After 14 days, your plan runs to the end of its term. Annual plans aren't refunded partway through, but you keep full access until the term ends.
• If the Service does not work as it should, tell us and we will put it right. If we cannot, you can have a proportionate price reduction, or leave with a refund of what you paid in advance for the rest of your term, plus the part of the price for the time it did not work as it should.
• If we change the Service and it reduces what you get in more than a minor way, you can leave free of charge within 30 days of our notice or of the change, whichever is later, with the same refunds. The details are in Terms §8.

You can delete your account any time from settings.

You have 30 days to change your mind. During that window your account and any unused Referral and Top-up Credits can be restored. After 30 days, deletion is permanent and unused Credits are lost. We'll show you your balance before you confirm.

If you stop using SKUASCOUT entirely. If you don't sign in for 24 months we may close your account. We'll email you at least 30 days before that happens, and signing in is enough to keep it open. If it is closed, the same 30-day recovery window applies.

Deleting your account is different from asking us to erase your personal data. How we handle personal data, retention and your rights under GDPR is in our Privacy Policy.

Enterprise offers a custom Credit allotment with volume pricing, under a separate agreement. Contact us if you need higher limits or a tailored arrangement.

• Allowance vs balance: your monthly allowance resets each period; Referral and Top-up Credits never expire.
• Spending order: whatever expires soonest goes first; Credits with no expiry go after, Referral Credits before the Credits you paid for, which are always last.
• Monthly reset: on a monthly plan, unused allowance Credits don't carry over; on an annual plan, up to one month's worth does, within the limits in section 5, and is spent before the new month's allowance.
• Costs shown up front, every type's cost in the Pricing Terms before you subscribe, exact cost before every run. 30 days' notice of any increase, or if a free feature starts using Credits.
• New features may be free or may use Credits; we say which before you use them, and adding one never reduces your allowance.
• No surprise charges, never charged for anything you didn't confirm.
• Failed analyses: returned whenever an analysis fails before delivering its result, whatever the cause; returned if you cancel a run in progress; returned Credits keep their expiry date (section 6); a run that completes keeps its charge, including a search that finds no niche.
• Upgrades (a bigger monthly plan, monthly to annual, a bigger annual plan) start the day you make them, with a new billing period from that day. The unused allowance Credits of your old plan, and on an annual plan the months not yet delivered, are credited against the price. You see the exact amount first.
• Downgrades (a smaller plan on the same billing interval, or annual to monthly) land at the end of the period you have paid for. Nothing is charged when you make one, your billing date does not move, and you can cancel it until it takes effect.
• Change your plan as often as you like: there is no limit, in either direction. A change cannot be made while your renewal is stopped or a payment is outstanding; an upgrade cannot be made for a short while after a new month of your plan starts; and if a discount makes an upgrade's credit larger than the new price, we make that upgrade for you by hand: contact support.
• Free trial: 250 Credits (500 if you signed up through a referral link; see the Referral Program Terms for when a bonus is reviewed first), no card, 30 days, never converts to a paid plan.
• Cancelling keeps your access and allowance to the end of the paid period; Referral and Top-up Credits remain afterwards.
• Failed renewal payments: retries for up to 14 days, access never blocked.
• Account deletion: 30 days to recover, then permanent.