Cost Calculation

Sim automatically calculates costs for all workflow runs, providing transparent pricing based on AI model usage and run charges. Understanding these costs helps you optimize workflows and manage your budget effectively.

Credits

Sim uses credits as the unit of measurement for all usage. 1 credit = $0.005.

All plan limits, usage meters, and billing thresholds are displayed in credits throughout the Sim UI. Dollar amounts in this documentation are provided for reference.

How Costs Are Calculated

Every workflow run includes two cost components:

Base Run Charge: 1 credit ($0.005) per run

AI Model Usage: Variable cost based on token consumption

modelCost = (inputTokens × inputPrice + outputTokens × outputPrice) / 1,000,000
totalCredits = baseRunCharge + modelCost × 200

Model Breakdown in Logs

For workflows using AI blocks, you can view detailed cost information in the logs:

The model breakdown shows:

• Token Usage: Input and output token counts for each model
• Cost Breakdown: Individual costs per model and operation
• Model Distribution: Which models were used and how many times
• Total Cost: Aggregate cost for the entire workflow run

Pricing Options

Hosted Tool Pricing

When workflows use tool blocks with Sim's hosted API keys, costs are charged per operation. Use your own keys via BYOK to pay providers directly instead.

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)

Use your own API keys for supported providers instead of Sim's hosted keys to pay base prices with no markup.

Supported Providers

Setup

1. Navigate to Settings → BYOK in your workspace
2. Click Add Key for your provider
3. Enter your API key and save

When configured, workflows use your key instead of Sim's hosted keys. If removed, workflows automatically fall back to hosted keys with the multiplier.

Voice Input

Voice input uses ElevenLabs Scribe v2 Realtime for speech-to-text transcription. It is available in the Mothership chat and in deployed chat voice mode.

Each voice session is billed when it starts. In deployed chat voice mode, each conversation turn (speak → agent responds → speak again) is a separate session. Multi-turn conversations are billed per turn.

Plans

Sim has two paid plan tiers - Pro and Max. Either can be used individually or with a team. Team plans pool credits across all seats in the organization.

To use Pro or Max with a team, select Get For Team in subscription settings and choose the tier and number of seats. Credits are pooled across the organization at the per-seat rate (e.g. Max for Teams with 3 seats = 75,000 credits/mo pooled).

Internal organization members use seats and contribute to the team's pooled credit allocation. External workspace members do not join your organization, do not appear in the organization roster, and do not count toward your seat total.

Daily Refresh Credits

Paid plans include a small daily credit allowance that does not count toward your plan limit. Each day, usage up to the daily refresh amount is excluded from billable usage. This allowance resets every 24 hours and does not carry over - use it or lose it.

For team plans, the daily refresh scales with seats (e.g. Max for Teams with 3 seats = 600 credits/day).

Annual Billing

All paid plans are available with annual billing at a 15% discount. Switch between monthly and annual billing in Settings → Subscription.

Team plans follow the same pricing per seat.

On-Demand Billing

By default, your usage is capped at the credits included in your plan. To allow usage beyond your plan's included amount, you can either enable on-demand billing or manually edit your usage limit to any value above your plan's minimum.

• Enable On-Demand: Removes the usage cap entirely. You pay for any overage at the end of the billing period.
• Edit Usage Limit: Set a specific cap above your plan's included amount to control how much overage you're willing to allow.
• Disable On-Demand: Resets your usage limit back to the plan's included amount (only available if your current usage hasn't already exceeded it).

Plan Limits

Workspaces

Team and Enterprise plans unlock shared workspaces that belong to your organization. Internal members invited to a shared workspace join the organization and count toward your seat total. Existing Sim users who already belong to another organization can be added as external workspace members; they get workspace access without joining your organization or using one of your seats. When a Team or Enterprise subscription is cancelled or downgraded, existing shared workspaces remain accessible to current members but new invites are disabled until the organization is upgraded again.

Rate Limits

Max (individual) shares the same rate limits as team plans. Team plans (Pro or Max for Teams) use the Max-tier rate limits.

File Storage

Team plans (Pro or Max for Teams) use 500 GB.

Run Time Limits

Sync runs complete immediately and return results directly. These are triggered via the API with async: false (default) or through the UI. Async runs (triggered via API with async: true, webhooks, or schedules) run in the background.

Billing Model

Sim uses a base subscription + overage billing model:

How It Works

Pro Plan ($25/month - 6,000 credits):

• Monthly subscription includes 6,000 credits of usage
• Usage under 6,000 credits → No additional charges
• Usage over 6,000 credits (with on-demand enabled) → Pay the overage at month end
• Example: 7,000 credits used = $25 (subscription) + $5 (overage for 1,000 extra credits at $0.005/credit)

Team Plans:

• Usage is pooled across internal team members in the organization
• External workspace members keep their own organization or personal billing context for runs where they are the billing actor
• Overage is calculated from total team usage against the pooled limit
• Organization owner receives one bill

Enterprise Plans:

• Fixed monthly price, no overages
• Custom usage limits per agreement

Threshold Billing

When on-demand is enabled and unbilled overage reaches $100, Sim automatically bills the full unbilled amount.

Example:

• Day 10: $120 overage → Bill $120 immediately
• Day 15: Additional $60 usage ($180 total) → Already billed, no action
• Day 20: Another $80 usage ($260 total, $140 unbilled) → Bill $140 immediately

This spreads large overage charges throughout the month instead of one large bill at period end.

Usage Monitoring

Monitor your usage and billing in Settings → Subscription:

• Current Usage: Real-time credit usage for the current billing period
• Usage Limits: Plan limits with a visual progress bar
• On-Demand Billing: Toggle on-demand billing to allow usage beyond your plan's included credits
• Plan Management: Upgrade, downgrade, or switch between monthly and annual billing

Programmatic Usage Tracking

You can query your current usage and limits programmatically using the API:

Endpoint:

GET /api/users/me/usage-limits

Authentication:

• Include your API key in the X-API-Key header

Example Request:

curl -X GET -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://sim.ai/api/users/me/usage-limits

Example Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "rateLimit": {
    "sync": {
      "isLimited": false,
      "requestsPerMinute": 150,
      "maxBurst": 300,
      "remaining": 300,
      "resetAt": "2025-09-08T22:51:55.999Z"
    },
    "async": {
      "isLimited": false,
      "requestsPerMinute": 1000,
      "maxBurst": 2000,
      "remaining": 2000,
      "resetAt": "2025-09-08T22:51:56.155Z"
    },
    "authType": "api"
  },
  "usage": {
    "currentPeriodCost": 12.34,
    "limit": 100,
    "plan": "pro_6000"
  }
}

Rate Limit Fields:

• requestsPerMinute: Sustained rate limit (tokens refill at this rate)
• maxBurst: Maximum tokens you can accumulate (burst capacity)
• remaining: Current tokens available (can be up to maxBurst)

Response Fields:

• currentPeriodCost reflects usage in the current billing period (in dollars)
• limit is derived from individual limits (Free/Pro/Max) or pooled organization limits (Team/Enterprise)
• plan is the highest-priority active plan associated with your user

Purchasing Additional Credits

Pro and Team plan users can buy additional credits at any time in Settings → Subscription → Credit Balance:

• Range: $10 to $1,000 per purchase
• Conversion: 1 credit = $0.005 (a $10 purchase adds 2,000 credits)
• Availability: Credits are added immediately after payment
• Expiration: Purchased credits do not expire
• Refunds: Purchases are non-refundable
• Team plans: Only organization owners and admins can purchase credits. Purchased credits are added to the team's shared pool.

Cost Optimization Strategies

• Model Selection: Choose models based on task complexity. Simple tasks can use GPT-4.1-nano while complex reasoning might need o1 or Claude Opus.
• Prompt Engineering: Well-structured, concise prompts reduce token usage without sacrificing quality.
• Local Models: Use Ollama or VLLM for non-critical tasks to eliminate API costs entirely.
• Caching and Reuse: Store frequently used results in variables or files to avoid repeated AI model calls.
• Batch Processing: Process multiple items in a single AI request rather than making individual calls.

Next Steps

• Review your current usage in Settings → Subscription
• Learn about Logging to track run details
• Explore the External API for programmatic cost monitoring
• Check out workflow optimization techniques to reduce costs