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Pooled billing in projects

Shared projects use owner-pays billing: every credit spent inside a project — generation, the editing agent, transcription — comes out of the project owner's credit balance, no matter which member did the work. Contributors never need their own paid plan to work in your project.

How spending is attributed​

Even though the owner pays, Corte records who spent what. The owner's usage ledger shows each project charge with the acting member attached, so you can always see where the credits went — by person, by kind (generation, agent, transcription), and by item.

Work you do in your personal workspace is always billed to your own credits, even if you also belong to projects.

When the owner runs out of credits​

If the owner's balance hits zero, AI work in the project pauses — new generations fail with an owner_insufficient_credits error rather than silently billing the contributor who clicked the button. Editing is never blocked: the timeline, captions you type, color, effects, and export all keep working, because editing is free.

Contributors who hit this message don't need to do anything except tell the owner — topping up or upgrading is the owner's move.

Tips for project owners​

  • Watch the ledger. Usage & the activity ledger breaks down project spend by member, so surprises show up early.
  • Top up before a crunch. Top-ups are instant and don't expire at the end of the month — buy headroom before a heavy generation day.
  • Right-size the plan. If the project burns through its pool every month, compare plans — Max's larger monthly budget is usually cheaper than repeated top-ups.
  • Mind the models. Per-second video models vary widely in price; the model catalog shows each model's rate before anyone hits Generate.