Credits for consultants

If you consult for one or more customers, Operator lets you choose whose credits pay for each connection you use.

The two credit sources

Each internal-user connection has a credit source:

• Home — usage is billed to your own home instance. Use this when you pay for the AI usage even though you are working inside a customer's data.
• This instance (local) — usage is billed to the connected instance. Use this when the customer pays for your AI usage on their instance.

Client-mode connections are always billed locally (to the client's instance).

Setting a home instance

The first internal connection you add becomes your home. You can change it later from the instance selector. Your home is the instance whose pool funds "home" billing across all your other connections.

Choosing per connection

In the instance selector, click Edit on any non-home internal connection and pick a credit source:

• Pick Home to charge your own instance.
• Pick This instance to charge the customer's instance. This option is only available when the customer's instance has credits allocated to you (ask their admin to top you up).

Typical scenarios

• Consultant working on client site, client pays: add an internal connection to the client's instance, ask the client's admin to top up your per-instance budget, and set credit source = This instance.
• Consultant working on client site, you pay: keep credit source = Home. Usage is drawn from your own instance's pool.
• Client-mode connection: no choice — always billed to the client's instance from your client-mode user budget on that instance.

Free Advisor

Advisor works without any connection and is free up to a per-user daily cap. It never draws from your paid budgets.

Before paid usage starts

Until AI credits become billable, Operator only tracks usage — it does not deduct credits or block work. Once billing goes live, the connection's credit source decides which pool is charged.