Understand credits

Credits are the currency used across ArcGIS and are consumed for specific transactions and types of storage, such as storing features, performing analytics, and using premium content. Any ArcGIS software that interacts with ArcGIS Online, such as ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Insights, or ArcGIS Field Maps, can use credits. Explore individual products to understand credit usage for tools and services in each app.

Most of what you do in ArcGIS Online does not require credits—for example, using ArcGIS Living Atlas basemaps and imagery, exporting data, and performing single address or place searches. In many cases, credit-consuming activities have a relatively low cost. For example, it costs less than 5 credits to geocode 125 addresses, store 2 GB of map tile data, or enrich ZIP Code boundaries in Detroit, Michigan, with four variables of population and income data.

The number of credits you have is determined by the user types in your subscription. At any time, you can purchase additional credits if needed.

Manage and monitor credits

Managing credit expenditures is important when administering your organization. ArcGIS Online provides administrators several tools for managing their credit budgets. One way to manage your credit budget is to configure and assign custom roles with only the appropriate privileges for your members to access the credit-consuming tools they need.

Another way to manage credits is to enable credit budgeting and assign a specific quantity of credits to some or all organization members or set a default allocation for new members. Credit budgeting applies to transaction-based services and tools such as GeoEnrichment and spatial analysis. It sets a threshold of credits that a user can spend in total or in a single job, preventing them from accidentally spending a large number of credits at once.

When an organization is low on credits, or if credit budgeting is enabled and a user is low on credits, certain activities that consume credits may be blocked from use.

If you need help estimating how many credits are needed to perform specific transactions or store data, see the Credits by capability section below.

Administrators can monitor credit usage through the status page. The status page provides an interactive breakdown of where credits have been used over time and which members have consumed them so you can make strategic adjustments to remove unused content or update member roles to better control access across the platform. Much like reviewing a monthly utility bill, monitoring credit usage is a way of knowing how the software is being used and predicting how many credits you will need over time.

Note:

ArcGIS Online stores usage data for the past two years only.

Credits and tools

Transaction-based tools—such as geocoding, GeoEnrichment, image analysis, and spatial analysis tools—are charged based on the number of records and the generated output. For example, with GeoEnrichment, you are charged based on the number of attributes that you add to your dataset. For generating travel areas (also known as drive-time areas), you are charged for each travel area generated, so if you were to generate three travel areas (2, 5, and 10 miles) for eight locations, you would be charged for 24 travel areas. For more information about credit consumption when using analysis tools, see Understand credits for spatial analysis.

If your organization has enabled credit budgeting and the expected number of credits exceeds the number of credits allocated to you, an error message appears and prevents you from submitting the job.

Note:

You can estimate the number of credits needed to run an analysis tool in Map Viewer and Map Viewer Classic. Some analysis tools do not consume credits. For details, see Understand credits for spatial analysis.

If you have privileges to perform image analysis, you can also use raster functions in Map Viewer Classic to process imagery layers. The following raster functions do not consume credits when run in ArcGIS Online:

  • Rasterize Attributes
  • Attribute Table
  • Raster Info
  • Key Metadata

Credits and storage

There are three types of storage that consume credits: feature storage, imagery storage, and file storage. Feature storage is specific to feature layers hosted in ArcGIS Online, while file storage includes other types of layers and files, including attachments in your hosted feature layers. Imagery storage is specific to imagery layers hosted in ArcGIS Online. For specific examples of what constitutes each type of storage and their credit consumption rates, see the Credits by capability section below. Some feature layer settings, including settings that control editing access such as Enable Sync and Keep track of changes to the data, can increase the feature storage size over time. Optimized hosted feature layers also use additional storage space.

You can determine the number of credits your organization is using for storage by clicking Storage on the Credit Utilization Chart on the Status tab of your organization page. You can select each storage type—for example, feature storage or file storage—to see a general breakdown of the number of credits your organization is consuming for that specific storage type.

You can see the specific storage of all hosted feature layers for your organization in the feature storage report by selecting Database storage under Storage Type in the report and clicking View item details. This shows you the amount of storage each feature layer is using in a single view.

You can see the storage details of all imagery layers for your organization in the imagery storage report by selecting Tiled Imagery Layer under Layer Type in the report and clicking View Item Details. This shows you the size of the image files used for storage credit usage, for each imagery layer.

Get more credits

Administrative contacts in the organization are notified when 75 percent and 100 percent of their credits have been used and when a member has used 100 percent of their credit allocation limit. If your organization uses all of its credits, the subscription is in restricted status or goes into a negative balance.

A subscription is moved to restricted status when an organization uses all of its credits. With a restricted subscription, access to some items and workflows is blocked. However, the subscription remains usable, allowing you to perform some actions to administer the organization and use content. The following activities are permitted with a restricted subscription:

  • The default administrator can perform all member and content management activities, including running administrative reports.
  • The default administrator can modify and save organization settings and policies.
  • The default administrator can invite members and assign licenses.
  • Members can open, view, share, and modify existing content in the organization.
  • Members can open public and shared content owned by others.
  • Members can use licensed software.
  • Members can add data to existing layers.

The following limitations apply to a restricted subscription:

  • Members cannot create new content.
  • Members cannot publish new layers of any type.
  • Members do not have access to any credit-consuming tools.

If you see a message indicating that your ArcGIS Online subscription is in restricted status, you can purchase additional credits or contact Esri Technical Support for further assistance.

Note:

Any unused credits included with your annual subscription expire at the end of the subscription period. Additional credits that are purchased expire after two years.

Credits by capability

Use the table below to estimate how many credits you will need to perform specific transactions or store data:

CapabilityExample of where usedCredits used

Feature storage, excluding feature attachments, feature collections, features associated with location sharing, and hosted feature layer views

Store a hosted feature layer

2.4 credits per 10 MB stored per month, calculated hourly

Note:

Feature layer settings, such as Enable Sync and Keep track of created and updated features, can increase storage size over time.

Imagery storage

Store a hosted imagery layer

For tiled imagery, storage costs are 1.2 credits per 1 GB stored per month, calculated hourly.

Note:

Credits for tiled imagery storage are calculated based on the size of the image files stored.

For dynamic imagery, storage costs are based on the image size and the number of images. Credits for image size are calculated at 1.2 credits per 1 GB stored per month, calculated hourly, based on the total size of the image or images. For the total number of images, the credit costs are as follows:

  • 1–10 images—10 credits per day
  • 11–100 images—20 credits per day
  • 101–1,000 images—40 credits per day
  • 1,001–10,000 images—80 credits per day
  • 10,001–100,000 images—160 credits per day
  • 100,000+ images—320 credits per day
Note:

An image in a dynamic imagery layer is considered to be a single image, an item in an imagery collection, or a slice of a multidimensional dataset. The total number of images in a dynamic imagery layer is calculated when the layer is published. You can find the number of images or slices in a dynamic imagery layer on the layer's item page.

Storage of all content, excluding hosted feature layers and content in ArcGIS Notebooks

Store web maps

Store files, such as PDF files, images, Microsoft Office documents, service definition files, and other items you add

Store feature collections

Store attachments in a hosted feature layer

Store published vector tile layers from ArcGIS Pro

Store scene layer packages from ArcGIS Pro

Store data packaged for offline map areas prepared ahead of time

1.2 credits per 1 GB stored per month, calculated hourly

Storage of all content in an ArcGIS Notebooks workspace

Upload and store content including shapefiles, .csv files, and other files in a workspace

12 credits per 1 GB stored per month, per user

Geocoding

Match addresses when publishing spreadsheets (such as .csv or Excel files) as hosted feature layers using ArcGIS World Geocoding Service or a view of this locator

40 credits per 1,000 geocodes

Feature Analysis

Perform feature analysis using feature analysis tools in Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic

Credit usage depends on the tool. For details, see Understand credits for spatial analysis.

Imagery Analysis

Perform imagery analysis using raster analysis tools or raster functions

Credit usage for imagery analysis depends on the number of pixels or features processed, which incorporates the number of bands in multiband imagery and the number of slices in multidimensional data.

Custom raster function templates that chain multiple complex functions together may increase credit usage.

Simple Routes

Get directions in Map Viewer or use route and directions for developers

0.005 credits per simple route

Optimized Routes

Get directions in Map Viewer or use Optimize order in Map Viewer Classic

Incorporate multiple destinations in a single route with optimized routing for developers

0.5 credits per optimized route

Origin Destination Cost Matrix

Calculate travel cost (connect origins to destinations in Map Viewer Classic)

Developers can calculate a travel cost matrix

0.0005 credits per input origin and destination pair

Closest Facility

Use a line distance or travel mode to find closest features in Map Viewer (find nearest in Map Viewer Classic)

0.5 credits per closest facilities route

Location Allocation

Choose best facilities to support demand from surrounding areas in ArcGIS Online or use location-allocation for developers

0.1 credits per allocated demand point

Fleet Routing

Determine how a fleet of vehicles can visit a set of stops in the least amount of time with Plan Routes in Map Viewer or use fleet routing for developers

1 credit per vehicle route

Service Areas

Generate travel areas to calculate an area using a specified travel time or distance in Map Viewer (create drive-time areas in Map Viewer Classic) or use service areas for developers

0.5 credits per service area

Points of Interest

Search points of interest, such as businesses and facilities, in ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App and ArcGIS Community Analyst

10 credits per 1,000 records saved, exported, or shared

Demographic Maps and Layers

Pan ArcGIS Living Atlas Tapestry layer in a map

10 credits per 1,000 map requests (pan, zoom, and identify)

Infographics

View infographics in supported apps, such as ArcGIS Pro, Business Analyst Web App, ArcGIS Community Analyst, ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, ArcGIS Experience Builder, and ArcGIS for Office

Export infographics to PDF, Excel, or HTML

10 credits per 1,000 views

10 credits per export

Feature Reports

Generate feature reports in ArcGIS Survey123

0.5 credits per report

Reports

Run reports in Business Analyst Web App

10 credits per report

Tile Generation

Build tile cache with ArcGIS Online

1 credit per 10,000 tiles generated

Scene Layer Generation From Features

Publish hosted scene layers from hosted feature layers

1 credit per 1,000 textured multipatch features

1 credit per 5,000 untextured multipatch features or point features

ArcGIS Notebooks: Interactive

Create, open, and run notebooks

3 credits per hour, per notebook using the Advanced runtime, calculated per minute (10-minute minimum)

30 credits per hour, per notebook using the Advanced with GPU runtime, calculated per minute (10-minute minimum)

ArcGIS Notebooks: Automated Workflows

Run a scheduled notebook task

1.5 credits per hour, per run using the Standard runtime, calculated per minute

4.5 credits per hour, per run using the Advanced runtime, calculated per minute

45 credits per hour, per run using the Advanced with GPU runtime, calculated per minute

ArcGIS Data Pipelines: Interactive

Create, open, edit, and run data pipelines

50 credits per hour, calculated per minute (10 minute minimum)

ArcGIS Data Pipelines: Scheduled

Run a scheduled data pipeline task

70 credits per hour, calculated per minute (1 minute minimum)