Censys Credits

Introduction to Censys Credits

Censys Credits enable users to search, explore data, and use additional features on the Censys Platform. When you search and interact with data in the Platform, each action you perform costs a fixed number of credits. For example, each action listed below consumes credits:

• Searching across hosts, certificates, and web properties
• Viewing raw data output for records
• Activating additional datasets
• Performing actions via the Censys API

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This is not an exhaustive list of actions that consume credits. 

How Censys Credits work

Censys Credits is a consumption-based model where credits are used to perform specific actions in the Platform. Every user starts with a free Censys account and receives 100 credits per month. Unused credits expire at the end of each month. Free accounts provide access to basic protocols and services for search and exploration.

To expand search capabilities and access more data, you can purchase credits based on your needs.

• Starter Tier: Available for purchase directly through the Censys website, starting at 500 credits. You can purchase additional credits at any time.
• Enterprise Tier: Requires purchase through the Censys Sales Team, starting at 250,000 credits. Additional credits can be purchased at any time from our sales team 

Upgrading from a Free to a Paid tier unlocks access to advanced platform features that enable you to perform a higher volume of search queries, access the API, access a broader range of data, search against more properties, generate raw data outputs, and more. 

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Typically, credits remain valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.

Credit consumption 

Below is a partial list of actions that consume credits. 

Search queries and credit consumption

When you execute a search in the Platform or API, it consumes credits.   

• Entity Lookup: Consumes 1 credit. (A search for a specific entity—such as an organization, domain, certificate, or host etc.)
• Standard Queries: Each standard query consumes 5 credits. (A query that doesn't use regex).
• Advanced Queries: Each advanced query consumes 8 credits. (Typically, a search that leverages one or more regular expressions.)

Additional Actions that consume credits

There are additional actions you can perform in the Platform that will consume credits. The list below represents a partial list of actions that consume credits:

• Paging through results
• Filtering results
• Clicking a host summary page in the web interface
• Accessing the raw data output for a record
• Clicking on a tag or label
• Activating datasets

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Many actions performed after a search consume a correlative amount of credits based on the type of search executed. For example, if you run an advanced query using regex (8 credits), and then select a filter, 8 additional credits are deducted.

Credit depletion

• Free Users: If you use all of your monthly credits, access to credit-consuming functionality will be restricted until the next monthly credit allocation or additional credits are purchased.
• Paid Users: If your credit balance is reduced to 0, you cannot use the basic functionalities of the Platform until you purchase additional credits or switch to your Free account.

How Credits differ from previous plans

There are three main differences between Censys Credits and the previous licensing models used for Censys Search.

• Credits-based licensing: The credit-based licensing model allows users to purchase and consume credits for various platform features, ensuring scalability, and pay based on your needs rather than a fixed monthly subscription cost.
• Dynamic scaling and tiered pricing: As your needs grow, you can easily purchase additional credits due to tiered pricing. 
• Quota expiry and management: Purchased credits are typically valid for 12 months.