Why does ArcGIS Online use credits?

Different organizations use credits for different things. Some organizations use their credits for ArcGIS Geocoding service or storing features, while others use them to run spatial analyses. The use cases for ArcGIS Online are incredibly diverse, and credits enable users to pay for the portion of ArcGIS Online that they use.

When does geocoding consume credits?

Searching for addresses does not consume credits. Credits are only consumed when geocoded points are saved. For example, when you drag and drop a CSV file of addresses into a web map and geocode them into points.

Do mobile data-collection apps consume credits?

When data is collected by mobile users, it is added to a feature layer. Storing the features consumes credits. The size and complexity of the feature layer will determine how many credits are consumed. Feature data may also be stored at a fixed cost by using Premium Feature Data Store .

Does storing media files in ArcGIS Online consume a lot of credits?

You can store photos, PDFs, and videos as items or with features as attachments. In both scenarios, the media files will be charged as file storage, which is more economical than feature storage.

ArcGIS Online Credits

What are ArcGIS Online credits?

Credits are a currency in ArcGIS Online used for specific transactions and types of storage, such as performing analytics, storing content in the cloud, and accessing premium content. ArcGIS Online has many diverse use cases—from logistics and distribution to emergency response—and credits ensure that you only pay for the services you use. Every ArcGIS Online subscription includes a pool of credits that can be shared by members of the organization. To learn about your organization's credit balance, contact your administrator.

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What are the benefits of credits?

Pay as you go

Pay for the tools you need, when you need them.
Enhance workflows

Use credits to access expanded or additional capabilities such as geoenrichment, image analysis, spatial analysis, and more.
Manage credits with ease

Understand credit usage trends by member, monitor credit balances, and use credit budgeting tools.

How many credits are included?

The user types in your subscription determine the quantity of credits you start with, which replenish annually at subscription renewal.

The Creator, Professional, and Professional Plus user types each include 500 credits.
The Mobile Worker and Contributor user types each include 250 credits.

For example, a subscription with a Creator user type and a Contributor user type would have 750 shared credits.

Additional credits are available for purchase in blocks of 1,000 and are valid for 24 months before expiration.

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When are credits used?

Many of the valuable capabilities in ArcGIS Online are included with your user type. To learn more about the storage and the transaction-based tools that consume credits, as well as their credit consumption rates, visit the understand credits page.

Storage

Storage credit usage depends on data size and how long it is stored per month. The most common type is feature storage, which includes data stored as hosted feature layers like points, lines, polygons, and tables. Storage credits are also used for storing imagery and various files, including attachments, offline map data, PDFs, images, Microsoft Office documents, and service definition files.
Transactions

Credits are used for specific transaction-based tools in ArcGIS Online, such as feature and imagery analysis, ArcGIS Geocoding service, or premium content from ArcGIS Living Atlas. For example, using the Plan Routes tool in Map Viewer to find the fastest way for a fleet of vehicles to visit a set of stops costs one credit per vehicle route.
Additional Esri products and capabilities

Any ArcGIS software that interacts with ArcGIS Online—such as ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro, or ArcGIS Field Maps—can be granted permission to use credits.

How can I manage my credits?

Use available tools to monitor and manage your credit usage.

Play the video

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Turn on credit budgeting
Create member roles
Monitor organizational usage
Show credits computation

Turn on credit budgeting

Administrators can allocate a specific quantity of credits to individual users by turning on credit budgeting.

Learn about credit budgeting

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Create custom member roles with privileges

When administrators know which tools members need, they can create and assign custom member roles with privileges to limit access to credit-consuming tools.

Learn more about member roles

A graphic of the ArcGIS Online "turn on member roles" interface

Monitor organizational usage

Administrators can monitor their organization's credit usage with tools on the Organization page, including the Overview and Status tabs, which enable them to:

Access a summary of their organization's total credit usage and trends (Overview tab).
Run a report on credit usage that lists credit costs associated with credit-consuming analysis tools and capabilities in their organization for a specified time period (Status > Report tab).
Run a report on item usage to assess the size of items and the date that they were last modified to determine whether they should be kept or deleted (Status > Report tab).

To help organization members understand their credit use, administrators can decide to show each member’s available credits on their settings page.

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Frequently asked questions

Credit usage by product and capability

Credits enable organization members to complete various workflows, including performing analysis, storing content in the cloud, and using premium content.

Learn more about credits

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