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.
NOTE
Your organisation may have multiple active credit buckets with different expiry dates. The system handles spend order automatically — you do not need to track which bucket is used.
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 — no card required
If your organisation's available credit balance is equal to or greater than the order total, the order is completed immediately using credits. No Stripe Checkout page is shown and no payment card is required. You will see the order marked as paid in your order history.
Insufficient credits — full card payment required
If your credit balance does not cover the entire order total, the full amount is charged via Stripe Checkout. Credits are not partially applied in this case — you pay the complete order total by card.
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.
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. Refunds to card (via Stripe) are handled separately where applicable.
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
Can I use credits and a card in the same order? No. Credits are only applied when they cover the full order total. If your balance is insufficient, the complete order amount is charged via Stripe — credits are not split across payment methods.
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.
How do I get credits enabled for my organisation? Contact the DataCosmos help desk.
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