# Renders Are Now Credits

> We've renamed renders to credits — the industry-standard term. 1 credit = 1 image, 1 PDF page, or 1 second of video. Your limits, pricing, and API stay exactly the same.

- **Author**: Rishi Mohan
- **Published**: 2026-06-05
- **Tags**: Updates
- **Read time**: 2 min read
- **URL**: https://orshot.com/blog/renders-to-credits

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We've renamed the unit Orshot bills in: **renders are now credits**. This is a change in terminology, not in what you get — your plan's capacity, your pricing, and the API are exactly the same as yesterday.

## The Change

Previously, 1 image/pdf page/or a video second used to consume 2 renders, which was confusing. Now, 1 image/pdf page/or a video second consumes 1 credit. In gist, 1 credit is 2 renders.

**It doesn't change the number of images, pdfs or videos you can generate in your plan**, it just renames the billing unit to simplify understanding.

## The new model

One credit always means one thing:

| You generate | Previously           | Now                 |
| :----------- | :------------------- | :------------------ |
| **Image**    | 2 renders            | 1 credit            |
| **PDF**      | 2 renders per page   | 1 credit per page   |
| **Video**    | 2 renders per second | 1 credit per second |

No multipliers, no per-format math, no surprises. A 10-second video is 10 credits. A 5-page PDF is 5 credits. An image is 1 credit.

## Nothing about your plan changed

Every quota now shows half the number with **identical value**:

- The free tier's 60 renders is now **30 credits** — same 30 images
- A plan with 3,000 renders is now **1,500 credits** — same 1,500 images
- Prices, rate limits, features, and overage behavior are all unchanged

If your usage page looks like the numbers halved overnight: they did, and so did the cost of everything you generate. Nothing was taken away.

## Why we did this

"Render" meant well, but it made you do math: an image was 2 renders, a PDF page was 2 renders, a video second was 2 renders. Every time you compared us to another tool — most of which price in credits — you had to convert.

Now the unit matches the industry standard _and_ maps 1:1 to what you actually produce. We think it's the simplest credit definition out there.

## For developers: zero breaking changes

The API is untouched. Fields like `renders_used` and `render_count` still return the same values they always did — they count renders, and 2 renders = 1 credit. No endpoints, parameters, or responses changed, so nothing in your integration needs updating. The mapping is documented in [Credit Usage](https://orshot.com/docs/definitions/credits-usage).

One small detail: in your logs, historical activity may show half credits (like 15.5) — that's the exact conversion of old render counts, kept accurate rather than rounded.

Questions? Hit the chat button — I'm usually the one answering.