My Creative Unit balance looks wrong
Last updated: October 11, 2026
Your Creative Unit balance is negative, lower than you expected, or a purchase hasn't shown up. Your balance belongs to the workspace, not to you, and it moves in ways that are easy to misread. Start with the cause that matches what you see.
You're looking at a different workspace
Each workspace has its own balance. If you belong to a personal workspace and a team workspace, the balance shown is the one for the workspace you have open. Click your workspace name at the bottom of the sidebar and check which one is selected; switch to your team's workspace under Workspaces. This is the most common reason for "I'm out of Creative Units" when your team has plenty.
The balance is negative
A generation is charged once its results are produced and measured, not when you start it. When you start a run, Layer holds an estimate of its cost, but the final charge can come out higher, and several runs started at the same moment can together go past what was left. The difference shows as a negative balance in red on the Usage page, with Creative Units Depleted. On some enterprise agreements the workspace is allowed to run negative and is invoiced for it later.
A negative balance is paid off first by the next units your workspace receives, from a renewal or a purchase. That is why a purchase can look smaller than what you bought: part of it covered the negative amount. Until the balance is positive again, new generations that need units are stopped.
The balance dropped while something is running
While a generation runs, its estimated cost is held so that other runs can't spend the same units. The Available Creative Units card on the Usage page shows how much is "reserved by generations in progress." When the run ends, the hold is released and only the actual cost is taken. If you cancel or the run fails, the whole hold is released.
Units you bought haven't arrived
Give it a minute. Units are added once the payment is confirmed, normally within seconds. The top-up dialog updates by itself and shows You're topped up when they land. On the Usage page, click the refresh button or reload.
Check which workspace you bought for. Units go to the workspace that was open when you checked out.
Check the payment. A declined card or a payment your bank still needs you to confirm adds no units. With auto-reload on, its status in billing settings tells you if the last top-up was declined or needs confirming.
Check for a negative balance. The new units may have paid off a negative amount first; see above.
A failed generation used units
A generation that fails without producing anything is not charged, and a cancelled one is not charged either: its held units are released. A few things can still cost units on a run that ends in a failure.
Results that were already produced
Some tools run several steps. If the main result was produced and a later step failed, the produced result is still charged. When a batch returns fewer results than you asked for, you pay for the ones that came back.
Workspace content rules
If your workspace checks prompts against its own rules, the check itself costs units even when it blocks the request.
Agent conversations
In the Agent, each model reply is charged as it happens, even if the generation it then starts fails.
To see exactly where units went, open the Usage page and group by Model or User; see See what your workspace has spent. For why a run failed, see Fix a failed or stuck generation.
Units disappeared when the plan renewed
Subscription units are for the billing period they come with. At renewal, only part of the unused subscription units roll over; the rest expire, and the new period's units are added. Units from one-time purchases are not cut back at renewal. The Available Creative Units card warns about units expiring within 7 days, and with billing access, Units breakdown lists every grant with its amount, expiry date and reason. For how much rolls over on your plan, see layer.ai/pricing.
Earned rewards aren't in the balance
Units you earn from achievements go into the workspace balance and are spent after your paid units. Some workspaces, such as enterprise workspaces and workspaces that draw on a parent workspace, don't receive earned rewards. If a reward should have landed and didn't, contact support.
Still stuck?
Contact support from Help & Resources > Talk To Us in Layer. Include the workspace name, what the balance shows and what you expected, and for a purchase, the date and amount or the invoice from Billing > View Invoices. Contact support with the right details lists everything that helps.