Penguin Pilot — Usage Meters and Credits (Schedule 2 to the Platform Terms of Service)
This is Schedule 2 to the Platform Terms of Service.
This Schedule sets out what we measure and what happens when you reach a limit. Current allowances, unit rates and Credit prices are shown in the platform and in your package — they aren’t repeated here so that they can be kept current.
1. The meters
| Meter | What it counts | What pauses if you run out |
|---|---|---|
| Automations | Each run of an automation, workflow step, scheduled job or triggered action that performs work in your workspace. | Automations and workflows stop running. Manual work continues. |
| AI Credits | Each use of an AI Feature — generation, summarisation, scoring, parsing, image generation, voice synthesis and similar. Different AI actions consume different numbers of Credits, shown in the platform. | AI Features stop generating. |
| Meter | What it counts | What pauses if you run out |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing Emails | Each marketing or campaign email sent to a recipient, counted per recipient per send. Transactional emails and internal notifications are not counted. | Campaign sending pauses. Queued campaigns hold rather than fail. |
| Storage | The total volume of files and attachments held in your workspace, measured as the amount stored, not the amount uploaded. | New uploads are blocked. Existing files stay accessible. |
| System Usage | The general technical consumption of the platform — see paragraph 2. | Non‑essential background processing, syncs, exports, reports, publishing and API access may pause. Core read access to your data continues. |
2. System Usage — what it covers
2.1 System Usage is deliberately general. It covers the ordinary technical work of running your workspace, including:
- API calls and webhook deliveries
- integration syncs (calendar, mailbox, accounting, advertising, portals)
- the number of records held in your workspace
- background and scheduled jobs
- searches, reports, dashboards and analytics generation
- exports, bulk operations and imports
- publishing, syndication and deployment operations
- rendering and serving of public pages, widgets and websites
2.2 We do not itemise or separately price these operations. They are measured together in a single System Usage meter, and topped up with a single kind of Credit. This is intended to keep pricing simple and predictable rather than to charge for each technical event.
2.3 We may change how System Usage is calculated — including the weighting of different operations — to keep the meter fair and representative of actual consumption. If a change would materially increase what a typical workspace consumes, we’ll give you at least 30 days’ notice, and you may cancel before it takes effect (clause 6.2).
3. How the meters work
3.1 Allowances. Each package includes an allowance for each meter. Allowances may be per workspace or per seat, as your package says. Where an allowance is per seat, adding or removing a seat changes the allowance from the date of the change.
3.2 Reset. Allowances reset at the start of each Usage Period. Unused allowance does not roll over.
3.3 Order of consumption. For each meter we consume: (a) your Included Allowance; then (b) your Purchased Credits, oldest first; then (c) overage, if your package offers it and you’ve enabled it.
3.4 Top-ups. You may buy additional Purchased Credits at any time at the prices shown in the platform. They’re added to the relevant meter immediately.
3.4A Overage instead of pausing. Where your package offers overage billing, you may choose to keep going past your Included Allowance and be billed at the published unit rate rather than pausing. Clause 6.11 of the terms sets out how caps and warnings work.
3.5 Auto top-up. Auto top-up is off unless you turn it on. When it’s on, we automatically buy the credit package you’ve chosen and charge your payment method whenever your balance for that meter falls below your trigger threshold — repeatedly if your usage requires it, up to the maximum spend you’ve set for the Usage Period. Once you hit that maximum, auto top-up stops and the meter pauses under paragraph 3.6. Credits bought this way are non-refundable and are not reversed because the usage that triggered them was unintended. Clause 6.4A of the terms sets out the full rules, including what happens when a payment fails and how to turn it off.
3.6 Running out. When a meter is exhausted, the features that depend on it pause until the earlier of the start of your next Usage Period and your purchase of more Credits. Pausing is a limit of your package, not a service failure. Clause 6.6 and clause 19.5(d) of the terms apply.
3.7 Enforcement delay. Metering is near real time but not instantaneous. Usage that occurs in the short window after a limit is reached is still your usage and is still payable.
3.8 Warnings. We show your usage in the platform and send warnings as you approach a limit. Warnings are a courtesy and are not guaranteed.
3.9 Expiry. Included Allowances expire at the end of each Usage Period. Purchased Credits expire 12 months after purchase, or on termination — but clause 21.7(d) of the terms refunds them where we ended the arrangement rather than you.
3.10 No cash value. Credits are not money, not a deposit, not transferable and not refundable, except where the law requires.
3.11 Storage over limit. If your stored data exceeds your Storage allowance, we’ll ask you to reduce it or buy more. If it stays over the limit for 30 days after we ask, we may block uploads and, after a further 30 days’ notice, archive or delete files above the limit, oldest first. We’ll always tell you before we delete anything.