Credits and billing

Paperjoy is prepaid. One credit pays for one live postcard: the card, the handwriting, the envelope, and postage.

What uses a credit

Action	Cost
Create a live postcard (editor, Zapier, MCP, or API)	1 credit
Save, edit, preview, or delete a draft	Free
Submit a live draft	1 credit
Create a test postcard	Free
Preview a card	Free
List, retrieve, or check your balance	Free
A postcard rejected by the content check	Refunded automatically
Retry with the same `Idempotency-Key`	Free, returns the original postcard

The credit is taken at the moment the postcard is ordered: when you create it without draft, or when you submit a draft. Drafts never use a credit.

Check your balance

Your balance shows in the top bar of the editor and on the Billing page. In code, use GET /api/user or the MCP tool get-account-status:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "user_abc123",
    "name": "Marta Nowak",
    "email": "marta@example.com",
    "available_credit_balance": 48
  }
}

Test postcards never change available_credit_balance.

Buy credits

Open Rozliczenia (Billing) and click Kup kredyty (Buy credits). You can buy between 5 and 1,000 credits at a time. You pay securely through Stripe. Invoices use your organization’s company details.

Plans

A plan lowers the price of every credit and unlocks extra features. The current prices are always on the Billing page.

	Start	Pro	Business
Monthly fee	None	Yes	Yes
Price per credit	Standard	Lower	Lowest
Editor, Zapier, MCP, and API	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom signatures	—	1	Up to 3
Priority support	—	Yes	Yes
Your cards written first	—	—	Yes
Help connecting your system	—	—	Yes

Change or cancel your plan from the Billing page. After you subscribe, the new plan can take a moment to appear while the payment is confirmed.

Out of credits

Live postcards fail when your balance is below one credit:

Method	What you see
API	`402 Payment Required` with `"You need at least 1 credit to create a postcard."`
MCP	The tool returns the same message as an error.
Zapier	The run fails. Top up, then run the Zap again.
Editor	The send button is disabled until you add credits.

Submitting a draft without credits also returns 402, and the postcard stays a draft, so nothing is lost. After you add credits, resend the postcard. You can reuse the same Idempotency-Key: Paperjoy doesn’t store the 402 response, so the retry creates the postcard.

Get started

Ways to send

Postcards

Account

API reference

Credits and billing

What uses a credit

Check your balance

Buy credits

Plans

Out of credits

​What uses a credit

​Check your balance

​Buy credits

​Plans

​Out of credits

What uses a credit

Check your balance

Buy credits

Plans

Out of credits