Credits

Credits are a pre-paid balance that your organisation can use to pay for DataCosmos services such as catalogue image purchases and satellite tasking requests. This page explains what credits are, how they work at checkout, and what happens when they expire or are refunded.

What are credits?

Credits are held at the organisation level, not per individual user. Any member of your organisation can benefit from the credit balance when placing orders. Credits are denominated in USD.

Credits are topped up by an OpenCosmos administrator or by your own organisation's admin users who have been granted the appropriate permissions. Not all organisations have credits configured — contact the DataCosmos help desk if you would like to enquire about enabling credits for your organisation.

Credit expiry

Every credit top-up has an expiry date aligned to the end of a calendar month (for example, credits topped up with an expiry of 01/2027 are valid until the end of January 2027). Credits are spent in first-in, first-out order: the credits with the earliest expiry date are always used first. Unused credits expire automatically when their expiry date passes.

How credits are applied at checkout

When you place an order, the system automatically checks whether your organisation's available credit balance covers the full order total.

Full coverage — order completed automatically

If your organisation's available credit balance is equal to or greater than the order total, the order is completed immediately using credits. No further action is required. You will see the order marked as paid in your order history.

Insufficient credits

If your credit balance does not cover the entire order total, the order will remain unpaid. Credits are not partially applied — the full order total must be covered by your credit balance (including any overdraft limit configured for your organisation). To top up your credits, contact Open Cosmos support.

API and programmatic purchases

The same credit-first behaviour applies when purchasing catalog images through the API. When credits cover the full order total:

• The order is completed immediately within the same API request.
• No browser interaction is required.
• The API response contains an empty checkout_url, indicating that no further payment action is needed.
• The order status is set to PAID straight away.

This means fully automated or M2M (machine-to-machine) integrations can purchase catalog data entirely via API calls without any browser interaction, as long as the organisation's credit balance covers the order. See the Purchasing Catalog Images developer guide for code examples.

Manual tasking requests and credit locks

For manual tasking requests, the full estimated cost is locked against your organisation's credit balance at the time the request is created. This reservation ensures the funds are available when activities are confirmed and billed.

If your organisation's balance (including any overdraft limit) is insufficient to cover the estimated cost, the manual tasking order cannot be created. In this case, contact the DataCosmos help desk to top up your credits.

Negative balances and overdraft

Some organisations are configured with an overdraft limit — a pre-approved amount that your credit balance is allowed to go below zero by. This is sometimes referred to as a "pay-as-you-go" allowance: it lets orders and tasking requests continue to be created after your prepaid credit balance has been fully spent, up to the agreed limit.

For example, an overdraft limit of 100.00 means your organisation's balance can go as low as -100.00 before further orders are blocked. Overdraft is checked and applied automatically wherever your credit balance is checked — at catalog checkout, for manual tasking locks, and for automated/systematic tasking purchases.

Overdraft is not enabled by default, and it is not the same as being invoiced afterwards. There is no separate invoice or automatic card charge for the amount your balance goes negative by.

How overdraft debt is repaid

Outstanding overdraft debt is repaid automatically and immediately whenever new credits reach your organisation's balance — whether from a top-up or a refund. Incoming credits are first used to bring your balance back up from negative to zero; only the remainder becomes newly available balance for future orders.

Enabling or changing your overdraft limit

To have an overdraft limit set or changed for your organisation, contact the DataCosmos help desk. Administrators with the appropriate permission can set the limit directly via the API — see Setting an overdraft limit.

Refunds and cancellations

If an order is cancelled or cannot be fulfilled, any credits that were spent or locked for that order are returned to your organisation's credit balance. For any other refund queries, contact Open Cosmos support.

Viewing your credit balance

Your organisation's current credit balance is available via the DataCosmos API. Contact your organisation's admin or the DataCosmos help desk if you need a balance statement.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if my credit balance does not cover the full order total? Credits are only applied when they cover the full order total. If your balance is insufficient, the order will remain unpaid. Contact Open Cosmos support to purchase additional credits.

What happens if my credits expire before I use them? Unused credits are automatically removed from your balance when they reach their expiry date. Contact the DataCosmos help desk if you believe credits have expired in error.

Who can add credits to my organisation? Credits can be added by OpenCosmos staff or by users in your organisation who hold the data:credits:add permission for your organisation. See the Credit Management admin guide for details.

What happens if my organisation's balance goes negative? If your organisation has an overdraft limit configured, orders can continue to be created after your credit balance reaches zero, down to the agreed limit. Outstanding overdraft debt is automatically cleared from the next credit top-up or refund before it becomes newly available balance — there is no separate invoice for it. See Negative balances and overdraft above.

How do I know if my organisation has an overdraft limit, and how large is it? Your organisation's overdraft_limit is included in the credit balance response returned by the API. See Viewing your credit balance above, or contact the DataCosmos help desk.

How do I get credits enabled for my organisation? Contact the DataCosmos help desk.

Where to next