Credits given to you, as opposed to credits you buy, arrive as an entitlement. They are yours, but they are not in any balance until you claim them.
Why it works this way
Credits belong to a workspace, not to an account. If you have several workspaces, we cannot know which one should get them. Rather than guessing and putting them somewhere awkward to undo, we let you choose.
The side effect is that if you never claim them, they are never in a balance, and it looks as though you were not given anything.
Claiming them
- Open the credits area. Anything waiting is shown as available to claim.
- Choose which workspace should receive them. If you have one workspace, this is the only option.
- Claim. The credits appear in that workspace's balance immediately, with their expiry date set from that moment.
The expiry clock starts when you claim
An entitlement does not tick down while it waits. Claiming starts the validity period. So there is no penalty for claiming promptly, and no advantage in delaying.
"I upgraded and my credits are missing"
Almost always an unclaimed entitlement. Check the credits area before contacting support. The second most common explanation is that they were claimed into a different workspace from the one you are looking at.
Putting them in the wrong workspace
Not a disaster. Credits can be moved between workspaces you own. See Moving credits between workspaces.