AI Video Credits That Expire: Rollover Rules Across Subscriptions

By the AI Music Video GuideUpdated November 5, 202610 min read

Quick answer: Most subscription credits expire when the billing cycle ends. Pollo, Topaz and Suno wipe them; Runway resets Standard and Pro within 24 hours of billing (pricing pages, read November 2, 2026). Exceptions: Runway Max rolls over 1 month, ElevenLabs up to twice your quota on the same paid plan, and the reseller we link rolls credits forward while subscribed.

The complaint comes up every month in creator forums: you paid for credits, you got busy, and the balance went to zero on renewal day. Whether that is a fair rule or a trap depends on the plan. We read the pricing and help pages of six services on November 2, 2026, and pulled out exactly what expires, what survives, and what happens when you cancel. Where a page was running a sale or left a figure out, we say so.

If you also make the video, the Seedance reseller we link is the one service in our table that rolls monthly credits forward while you stay subscribed (seeddance.video pricing page, read November 2, 2026). Our /go/seedance links go to seeddance.video, an independent site that resells Seedance alongside other models, and we earn a commission if you subscribe through them; it is not ByteDance. See the reseller's current plans.

Why do AI video credits expire at the end of the month?

Because subscription credits are an allowance, not a purchase. Pollo's credit FAQ describes subscription credits as granted each billing cycle and says unused credits don't roll over, while bonus credits and add-on credits never expire (Pollo credits FAQ, read November 2, 2026). Runway, Topaz and Suno state the same reset rule on their own pricing pages.

Pollo is the clearest about the mechanics, which makes it a useful model for reading everyone else's fine print. Its credits FAQ lists three credit types: subscription credits granted each billing cycle, bonus credits from sign-up bonuses, daily check-ins and referrals, and add-on credits bought through credit packs. Only the first type expires (Pollo credits FAQ, read November 2, 2026).

The same page says credits are deducted based on the tool and model you use, video duration, number of outputs, image or video resolution, and other factors, so a monthly allowance can disappear faster than the plan card implies (Pollo credits FAQ, read November 2, 2026).

The consumption order matters as much as the expiry rule. Pollo spends subscription credits first, then bonus credits, then add-on credits, so the credits that expire soonest are used first (Pollo credits FAQ, read November 2, 2026). That is the right order for the customer.

If Pollo's rules suit how you work, see Pollo's current plans (affiliate link: we earn a commission if you subscribe, at no extra cost to you; how we handle affiliate links).

The music side is stricter still. Suno's pricing page says credits included in subscriptions do not carry over from day to day or month to month, and its free plan hands out 50 credits per day rather than a monthly pool (Suno pricing page, read November 2, 2026).

Pro at $8 a month gives 2,500 credits a month and Premier at $24 a month gives 10,000, and neither balance carries over (Suno pricing page, read November 2, 2026). A daily allowance is the purest form of use-it-or-lose-it: skip a day and that day's credits are gone.

Which plans roll credits over and which ones reset?

Three of the six services reset subscription credits on every plan: Pollo, Topaz and Suno. Runway resets Standard and Pro but Max rolls unused credits over for 1 month, ElevenLabs rolls over up to twice your quota on paid self-serve plans, and the Seedance reseller we link rolls credits forward while subscribed (all pages read November 2, 2026).

The table below puts every policy side by side. Figures and quoted rules come from each service's own pricing or help page, all read on November 2, 2026.

A few rows need caveats. Runway's rollover is a Max-only feature: Standard ($15 a month, 625 credits) and Pro ($35 a month, 2,250 credits) reset within 24 hours of the billing date, and only Max ($95 a month, 9,500 credits) keeps unused credits for 1 month (Runway pricing page, read November 2, 2026). Those are the monthly prices; annual billing is cheaper.

Topaz separates cloud from local. Its pricing page says monthly credits expire at the end of each month and do not roll over, but those credits only pay for cloud rendering; on the desktop Topaz Video plans, local rendering is unlimited (Topaz Labs pricing page, read November 2, 2026).

The web video plan we saw was on sale, $29 struck through to $19 a month with 200 monthly cloud video credits (Topaz Labs pricing page, read November 2, 2026), so treat that price as temporary.

ElevenLabs is a voice and music tool rather than a video one, and its rollover works differently from the video services. Its help center says that on paid self-serve plans, up to twice your usual credit quota will automatically roll over into your new credit quota, provided you stay on the same plan (ElevenLabs help center, read November 2, 2026).

The worked example on that page: a Starter account with 60,000 unused credits gets a 90,000 credit quota at renewal, which is 60,000 rolled over plus 30,000 new (ElevenLabs help center, read November 2, 2026).

The Seedance reseller is the only service in our table that rolls monthly credits forward with no stated cap. Its FAQ says every unused credit on a monthly subscription rolls forward indefinitely as long as the subscription stays active, and on an annual plan the full twelve-month credit pool lands in your wallet on day one (seeddance.video pricing page, read November 2, 2026). We work through that reseller's per-clip maths in how many credits a Seedance video costs.

Which credits never expire at all?

Mostly the ones you buy outright. Pollo's add-on and bonus credits never expire, Runway's purchased extra credits never expire, and the Seedance reseller's one-time packs stay live for roughly ten years (Pollo, Runway and seeddance.video pricing pages, read November 2, 2026). ElevenLabs is the exception: its Pay As You Go credits expire 12 months after purchase (ElevenLabs help center).

Runway's free tier is the odd one out in a good way: the Free plan comes with a one-time deposit of 125 credits that doesn't expire, so a dormant free account keeps its starter balance (Runway pricing page, read November 2, 2026). If you have hit the wall mid-project, our piece on what to do when Runway credits run out walks through the options.

Pollo's add-on credits carry one catch: they are not refundable, even though they never expire, and the pricing page says refunds on subscription credits are only available within 3 days of your first purchase if you meet the eligibility criteria (Pollo pricing page, read November 2, 2026). The add-on slider is available to Pro users, and Pro-Yearly subscribers can buy add-on credit packs.

Suno sells top-up credits too, and its pricing page says purchased top-up credits do not expire but require an active subscription to use (Suno pricing page, read November 2, 2026). That is a permanent balance you can only spend while you keep paying the monthly fee, so it suits subscribers who run short mid-month, not people who plan to leave.

Twelve months is long enough for most projects, but it is still a clock on ElevenLabs' Pay As You Go credits. If you'd rather avoid subscriptions altogether, see our guides to pay-as-you-go AI video and AI video without a subscription.

What happens to your credits when you cancel or downgrade?

Subscription credits usually die with the plan. Pollo expires unused subscription credits when a membership ends, ElevenLabs says cancelling or downgrading takes effect at the end of the cycle and you lose any unused credits, and the Seedance reseller keeps unused credits live until the current billing period ends (help and pricing pages, read November 2, 2026).

The ElevenLabs rule has a useful corollary. Upgrading mid-cycle keeps your balance: any remaining unused credits are added to your new credit quota, and the billing cycle resets (ElevenLabs help center, read November 2, 2026). Downgrading is the move that hurts, because the rollover only applies if you stay on the same plan.

If you are on Creator ($22 a month, or $18.33 a month on annual billing, for 121k credits) and want to drop to Starter, spend the balance first (ElevenLabs pricing page, read November 2, 2026).

Pollo's refund window is short. The pricing FAQ says you can request a refund for subscription credits within 3 days of your first purchase as long as you meet the eligibility criteria, and add-on credits are not refundable (Pollo pricing page, read November 2, 2026).

One caveat: the annual prices we saw, such as Lite at $15.00 a month billed annually, carried a "FLASH SALE 50% OFF" label, and the monthly-billing prices did not render for us (Pollo pricing page, read November 2, 2026), so we won't quote a standard monthly rate.

The Seedance reseller lists refunds for billing mistakes, verified platform failures or duplicate charges, settled in 5 to 10 business days (seeddance.video pricing page, read November 2, 2026). Unused credits are not on that list, which is normal. We cover its failed-generation handling in Seedance refunds for failed generations and the cancellation steps in how to cancel a Seedance subscription. For another vendor's failure policy, see what happens to Kling credits when a generation fails.

How do you stop paying for credits you never use?

Buy the smallest monthly plan first, line your billing date up with your release schedule, and reserve annual pools for bursts. None of this changes the expiry rules, but it puts your heaviest rendering inside the window where the credits exist, which is the only thing that matters on a plan that resets.

Four habits that keep credits from vanishing

• Buy monthly first. A monthly plan at a tool that resets credits tells you, within one cycle, how much you actually render. Annual billing locks in a discount, and on most services it locks in the same reset rule, so the saving only pays if you were going to use the allowance anyway.
• Align billing dates with release dates. If your subscription renews at the start of the month and your single drops at the end of it, you have spent the month's credits on tests and have none left for final renders. Subscribe, or move the renewal, so the fresh allowance arrives just before the heavy week.
• Use annual pools for bursts. Where a service issues the whole year's credits upfront, an annual plan behaves like a large prepaid pack: you can spend most of it in the month a video goes out and coast afterwards. Where the service keeps monthly resets on annual billing, an annual plan does nothing for bursts.
• Know the consumption order. Spend expiring credits before permanent ones. Pollo does this automatically (subscription, then bonus, then add-on). On tools that don't say, ask support before you load up on packs.

One service in our table does issue the full annual pool upfront. With the annual toggle on, the Seedance reseller's pricing page listed Basic at $9.90 a month for 150 credits every month, with the full 1800 credits issued upfront on annual, and Pro Max at $59.90 a month for 1,500 credits every month, with 18,000 issued upfront (seeddance.video pricing page, read November 2, 2026).

Two notes on that page. The annual toggle was labelled "Save 30%", so the per-month figures above are annual-billing prices, not what you'd pay month to month (seeddance.video pricing page, read November 2, 2026). And a banner read "Price increase coming soon! Subscribe now to lock in low prices!", which is a sales nudge with no date attached. We'd still buy one month before committing to a year.

Primary sources

• Pollo AI: plans and pricing, read November 2, 2026.
• Pollo AI: FAQs about Pollo credits, read November 2, 2026.
• Runway: pricing, read November 2, 2026.
• Topaz Labs: pricing, read November 2, 2026.
• Suno: pricing, read November 2, 2026.
• ElevenLabs: pricing, read November 2, 2026.
• ElevenLabs help center: what happens to my subscription and quota at the end of the month, read November 2, 2026.
• seeddance.video: pricing, read November 2, 2026.

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