Layer runs on Creative Units (CUs) — every generation spends them. Two pages under Settings help you stay on top of that: Usage shows what your workspace is spending, and Billing is where you manage how you pay for more.
📘 New to Creative Units? See How Creative Units Work for what a CU is and how generations are priced. This guide is about the Usage and Billing pages themselves.
Where to find them
Open Settings and look under the Usage heading in the left nav: Usage (monitor spend) and Billing (manage your subscription and payment).
Monitor your usage
The Usage page shows your workspace's CU consumption at a glance:
Available Creative Units — your current balance. The bar underneath shows how much of this period's allocation you've used (hover the ? to see "Used X of Y this period").
Total Creative Units Used — the total for the selected period, with the percentage change versus the previous period.
Average per Day — your typical daily spend across the period.
Filter and group
Three controls let you slice the data:
Period — pick a preset (today, the last week, month, 3 months, 6 months, or year) or choose a custom date range from the calendar
Group usage by Model, Modality, Mode, or User — to see exactly where your CUs are going
Export CSV — download the breakdown for your own records or to share with finance
The breakdown
Below the chart, a table breaks down everything you've used. For each row you'll see the Measurements it was billed on, the Generation Cost (CUs per measurement), and the Creative Units Used total:
💡 Costs are metered per model. Different models bill on different measurements — megapixel-seconds for video, generations or megapixels for images, seconds for clips — so a long, high-resolution generation costs more than a quick, low-res one. The breakdown shows exactly how each model is priced.
Manage billing
The Billing page (managed by workspace admins) is where you control how you pay for Creative Units:
Current Plan — your subscription status. A subscription gets you Creative Units at a lower rate than one-time purchases. (See Guide to Layer's Subscriptions & Pricing for what each plan includes.)
Payment Method — add or update the card on file
Buy Credits — make a one-time purchase; credited immediately, with no recurring charge
Invoices — view and download invoices for all past payments and subscriptions
Billing Portal — manage billing details, tax information, and subscription settings in Stripe
📘 Need more Creative Units right now? You can top up from either page — Buy Creative Units on Usage, or Buy Credits on Billing. If you generate regularly, a subscription lowers your cost per CU.