Credits and purchases

One balance

The website and API use the same credit balance. A newly created account receives 10 welcome credits once. Repeated sign-in does not grant another bonus. Recent cached public results can be returned at no charge; a fresh source task can require credits.

Balance separates available credits from credits reserved for tasks that have not finished. Activity shows each task's quote, final cost and result. Credits are usage units, not money held in a bank account.

Estimates and settlement

An estimate is bound to its inputs and expires after ten minutes. Review a new estimate after changing the scope. Starting a task reserves its displayed maximum. Only the task's defined delivered units are charged, and the final charge cannot exceed the accepted estimate.

For partial results, only delivered units are charged and coverage limits remain visible. Metadata may cover only a public viewing window; that does not make a successfully delivered selected file incomplete. A failed task with no delivered output is not charged. A completed change observation may find no changes: the delivered unit is the fresh observation, not the number of changed titles. Its estimate states the delivered unit before it runs. Native episode directories are quoted per episode report: one title can produce many rows while remaining one report. A refresh of that report is still one fresh report when no facts changed.

Retrying an existing task's status, restoring its page or downloading its existing file does not create a second execution charge. Starting a new source refresh requires a new accepted estimate.

Actor collection reports are priced per requested profile page, not per listed work or CSV row. An episode-comment report includes its identity/type checks and an available sample of up to ten comments; fewer usable comments do not reduce the accepted report fee. Failed verification or no usable comments costs nothing. A reported-release scan is charged per verified catalog title checked, including date nonmatches; all checked titles remain in its report and export. Always use the current estimate rather than assuming every table row has the same price.

Prepaid packs

Open Add credits from Balance to see the packs in one window. Checkout is available only after the payment service is configured and verified. A visible pack is not evidence that live collection is active.

A payment return page alone does not add credits. The server must verify the payment notification and match its amount, currency and purchase before applying the pack once.

Refunds and problems

The intended purchase policy allows a request for a full refund within 14 days for a completely unused pack. Used packs do not qualify for discretionary refunds; incorrect charges, service faults and statutory rights are handled separately. Welcome and bonus credits have no separate cash value. For billing questions or refund requests, contact support@shortdramakit.com.

If a task or charge looks wrong, retain the task ID and error reference shown in Activity. Do not send API keys or card details in a support message.

CSV/JSON and column changes use your saved result and do not reserve credits or collect again. A multi-episode ZIP is a free export of the already verified private files; each delivered MP4 is counted once, and the ZIP is not an extra charged item. Source inspection and selected-file delivery retain their separately accepted estimates and receipts.

A complete, unexpired download with the same accepted source scope reuses its saved file action. Changing the source or selecting different episodes requests a new estimate. Expired, failed, cancelled or partially delivered work remains distinct from a fully saved result. Source defaults and empty reference lists do not turn the same saved selection into another paid action.

Cached metadata is scoped to its normalized source contract. When the source contract changes, incompatible old metadata is not reused as if it contained the new fields. Previously accepted tasks and their charges remain unchanged, and their own saved results stay available.

Editorial snapshots and bounded program episode reports are acquisition units. Displaying fewer rows does not reduce their quoted report fee. If you request several programs, each successfully delivered program report is a separate unit; failed programs are not charged. The maximum and unit appear before execution, and saved exports do not start another acquisition.