How Inven credits work
Inven has three types of credits: AI credits, Contact credits, and Export credits. Learn how they are used in this article.
Credit types at a glance
- AI credits power Inven's chat and AI features, such as searching, building lists, and enriching company data.
- Contact credits are used when you unlock or export a key person's contact details, such as a CEO's or founder's email or phone number.
- Export credits are used whenever you export company or deal data out of Inven — to Excel, PowerPoint, your CRM, or an AI tool via our MCP.
Every Inven subscription includes an allocation of AI, Contact, and Export credits, with the amounts depending on your plan.
AI credits refresh monthly on the 1st, while Contact and Export credits refresh annually.
Tracking your credit usage and balance
Check how many AI, Contact, and Export credits you have left anytime from Account > Credits. Your AI credit balance is also shown above the chat box.
If you're running low on AI credits, you'll see an in-app message with the option to request more. Admins can purchase top-ups directly, and are notified when team members request credits so they can approve the purchase.
Need more credits? Reach out to your Inven representative anytime to explore plans and top-ups.
AI credits
These actions use AI credits:
- Chat (Advanced and Balanced modes only): Variable credit usage — learn more
- AI enrichment: Variable credit usage — learn more
- Using Inven in your AI tools via MCP: Variable credit usage — learn more
- Downloading files, e.g. financial statements for some countries: 1 AI credit per file
How the chat uses AI credits
Some chat modes use AI credits. Choose the right mode depending on your task:
- Fast is free and uses none of your AI credits.
- Balanced uses a moderate number of AI credits for more capable results.
- Advanced uses the most AI credits, for your most complex work.
Here's what two sample prompts cost for each mode:
| Prompt | Advanced | Balanced | Fast |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a list of Finnish HVAC companies, €2–20M revenue | 5.70 AI credits | 2.44 AI credits | Free |
| Create a long list of UK Medtech companies | 5.08 AI credits | 1.57 AI credits | Free |
Use the chat in Fast mode for simple tasks at no cost, and switch to Balanced or Advanced for more demanding tasks.
How AI Enrichment uses AI credits
Standard mode uses 1 AI credit for every 20 results enriched, per enrichment prompt.
- Example: Running 2 Standard enrichment prompts for 20 companies uses 2 AI credits.
Advanced mode uses 1 AI credit for each result enriched, per enrichment prompt.
- Example: Running 1 Advanced enrichment prompt for 10 companies uses 10 credits.
You will see how many credits are required before starting the enrichment.
Contact credits
Contact credits are used when you unlock or export a key person's contact details, like a CEO's or founder's email address or phone number.
- 1 contact credit per person's contact information you unlock.
- One-time charge: You are only charged once per contact the first time you unlock them, no matter how many times you access their contact info again later.
Export credits
Export credits are used when you export data from Inven to elsewhere — e.g. to Excel, PowerPoint, your CRM, or your AI tool via our MCP.
- 1 export credit per company or deal data you export.
Credit usage via MCP
Using Inven MCP consumes different types of Inven credits, depending on what you do:
| Action | Credits used |
|---|---|
| Any interaction with Inven via your AI tool | 1 AI credit per tool call* |
| Search companies, investors, or deals | 1 export credit per result found |
|
Get contact information (emails, phone numbers) |
1 contact credit per contact |
|
Status check (e.g. Am I connected to Inven?) |
Free |
| Credit check (e.g. How many credits do I have left?) |
Free |
Examples:
- Search for companies, 50 companies found → 50 export credits
- Pull a saved list of 30 transactions → 30 export credits
- Look up emails for 10 executives, 6 found → 6 contact credits
- "Build a market analysis of X sector" → variable AI credits + export credits, depending on number of tool calls needed
What are tool calls?
Tool calls are made whenever your AI tool interacts with Inven via MCP to run a search, retrieve data, pull a list, etc. A single prompt can trigger anywhere from 1 to many tool calls, depending on what it asks for.
For example, "Do a market analysis of the European warehouse automation sector" might require running multiple searches and retrieving data on many companies to build its answer. The exact number of tool calls made also depend on the complexity of your prompt and what AI model you're using.