Understand credits
In this topic
Service credits are the currency used across ArcGIS and are consumed for specific transactions and types of storage such as storing features, performing analytics, and using premium content. Any app that interacts with ArcGIS Online such as ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Maps for Office, Portal for ArcGIS, or Collector for ArcGIS can use credits. Most of what you do in ArcGIS Online does not require credits, for example, using Living Atlas basemaps and imagery, exporting data, and performing single address or place searches. In many cases, credit-consuming activities carry a relatively low cost. For example, it costs less than 5 credits to enrich ZIP Code boundaries in Detroit, Michigan, with four variables of population and income data, or geocode 125 addresses, or store 2 GB of map tile data.
Managing credit expenditures is an important component of administering your organization. ArcGIS Online provides administrators several strategies for maintaining a well-balanced credit budget. One strategy is to configure and assign custom roles with only the privileges your members need. Another strategy is to configure credit budgets that assigns a flexible allocation of credits to some or all organization members or set a default allocation for new members.
Another budgeting strategy is to estimate how many credits you will need to perform a specific credit-consuming activity. To help you estimate costs, each analysis tool in the map viewer includes a credit estimator so you can view how many credits a specific set of analytic operations will cost. You can also monitor credit usage through credit utilization dashboards on item pages and the status page. The status page provides an interactive breakdown of where credits have been used over time and which members have consumed them so you can make strategic adjustments to remove unused content or update member roles to better control access across the platform. Much like reviewing a monthly utility bill, monitoring credit usage is a way of knowing how the software is being used and predicting how many credits you will need for an extended period.
Note:
When running an analysis, the credit estimator in ArcGIS Online will calculate the expected number of credits that will be used and compare it to the number of credits you have available. If you or your organization do not have enough credits, an error message will be displayed.
Credit consumption is based on the number of input features, except when running tools that use the Network Analysis privilege. When network analysis is performed, the estimate is based on the inputs but credits are deducted based on the results. Therefore, the estimated credit consumption may be higher than the actual number of credits deducted when the tool is run. If you are using tools with network analysis capabilities, you may need your administrator to increase the number of credits assigned to your account before your analysis can be run. Analysis tools that use the Network Analysis privilege include the following:
- Summarize Nearby (requires this privilege only when travel modes are used)
- Choose Best Facilities
- Enrich Layer (requires this privilege only when travel modes are used)
- Create Drive-Time Areas
- Find Nearest (requires this privilege only when travel modes are used)
- Plan Routes
- Connect Origins to Destinations
Designated administrators in the organization will be notified when 75 percent and 100 percent of their credits have been used and when a member has used 100 percent of their credit allocation limit. If your organization runs out of credits, the subscription may become suspended or go into a negative balance, depending on the subscription type. Subscriptions can be reactivated by purchasing more credits. While an account is suspended, access to services and other items is temporarily unavailable, but the content will not be deleted or removed from the system.
Credits by capability
Use the table below to estimate how many credits you will need to perform specific transactions or store data.
Capability | Example of where used | Credits used |
Feature storage, excluding feature attachments | Storing a hosted feature layer in My Content | 2.4 credits per 10 MB stored per month, calculated hourly |
File and tile storage, including feature collections, feature attachments, and scene layer packages | 1.2 credits per 1 GB stored per month | |
Geocoding | Matched addresses when publishing CSV as hosted feature layer | 40 credits per 1,000 geocodes |
Service Areas | 0.5 credits per drive-time | |
Closest Facility Routes | 0.5 credits per closest facilities route | |
Multi-Vehicle Routes | 1 credit per vehicle route | |
GeoEnrichment | 10 credits per 1,000 attributes (data variables) | |
Simple Routes | 0.04 credits per simple route | |
| Optimized Routes | Directions with Optimize order | 0.5 credits per optimized route |
Location-Allocation | 0.1 credit per demand point route | |
Spatial Analysis | 1 credit per 1,000 features (queried for Find Existing Locations and Derive New Locations) | |
Elevation Analysis | 1 credit per 1,000 features | |
Business Search | Search businesses and facilities in Business Analyst Web App | 10 credits per 1,000 records |
Demographic Maps and Layers | Pan Living Atlas Tapestry layer in map | 10 credits per 1,000 map requests (pan, zoom, and identify) |
| Infographics | View infographic in ArcGIS Maps for Office | 10 credits per 1,000 views |
Reports | Run reports in Business Analyst Web App | 10 credits per report |
Tile Generation | 1 credit per 1,000 tiles generated |