What happens to my credits if a run fails?

Credits are charged when a run starts. If the run fails for a reason on our side, for example a data provider error or a crash, the same number of credits goes back into your balance automatically. The ledger on the Credits page shows the charge and the return as two lines, labeled Run and Credits returned.

What counts as our side

Anything that is not a choice you made: provider outages, a page that could not be fetched, a bug. A run you stop yourself is also returned in full.

What does not

A run that finishes and produces a plan you disagree with is a finished run. The evidence behind every decision is there to check, and a page decision can be Skip for good reasons. If you believe the research broke its own rules, tell us with the site and the page and we look; see the Complaints Policy.

Running again

A failed run keeps the steps that finished. Run Research Again reuses the stored results, so the rerun is faster and cheaper for us, and you are charged the normal price only once it starts.

Keywords for an Idea

The 5 credits for an idea come back in full if its run fails or you stop it, whatever the cause, and the idea shows Ready to start again. To try again, press Run It Again · 5 Credits on the idea's page, or Find the Keywords · 5 Credits when it shows Is this what you meant?. A restart on our side is not a failure: the run pauses, keeps its charge and carries on. If your balance is under 5 credits when the work starts, the run fails and nothing is charged. See How does Keywords for an Idea work?.

The trial research

The research included in the $1 trial charges no credits, so there is nothing to return if it fails. It simply does not count as your trial research, and you can run it again from the site's page.