Galaxy uses a credits balance for tool work. Credits are not a fixed price per “task” — they follow what actually ran.
What uses credits
- Magica tools (GPT Image 2, Crop Image, Merge Videos) settle once when the tool finishes
- A turn may reserve credits up front. If the estimate is larger than the remaining reserve, you get a credit waitpoint — approve or stop
- Unused reserve is reconciled when the run finishes
What does not charge application credits
OpenRouter Free records tokens at 0 application credits. The footer under a reply still shows token counts so you can see how large the turn was.
Track usage
Each finished assistant message shows duration, tokens, credits, and the routed model. Your balance is on Settings → Account and on a task page next to the folder control.
Image and video tools cost more than a text-only reply. If usage looks high, check whether GPT Image 2 or Merge Videos ran, and whether the same chat had more than one tool turn.