Lutra is more than a workflow automation system - it’s an AI that builds and runs automations on your behalf. While connecting your own apps (like Google, Slack, or Airtable) is generally free, certain AI and data-driven actions consume credits.
This page explains how credits work, what they cost, and why they matter.
What Are Credits?
Credits are the currency Lutra uses to perform certain AI-intensive or data-based actions on your behalf. These actions typically include:
AI Processing
Generating text, extracting data, analyzing documents, summarizing, or classifying large amounts of content.Fetching External Data
Searching the web, retrieving someone’s public profile, fetching news or market data—any time Lutra taps external services to bring in new information.
When you sign up for a Lutra plan, you get a monthly credits allowance. Every action that costs credits deducts from that allowance.
If an action is cached, meaning Lutra already retrieved that exact data recently for you, no additional credits are used.
Application Integrations (0 credits)
Most “in-app” actions: Reading or writing data directly from your connected tools, such as: Slack, Google (Docs, Sheets, Gmail, Calendar), Airtable, GitHub, Outlook, and more.
Because you own these accounts, simply retrieving and organizing data within them is free on Lutra. You may be charged by the provider directly to you.
Web Search and Website Retrieval
Action | Credits |
Get website | 1 |
Search the web | 3 |
When Lutra searches the web, it reads multiple pages and synthesizes the data across them to get the data you need.
People & Company Data
Action | Credits |
Get person profile | 3 |
Get company profile | 3 |
For example, fetching a public LinkedIn or company listing to see basic details like summary, location, or size.
AI Functions
Action | Credits |
Generate text (e.g., draft messages, create summaries) | Varies |
Classify documents (e.g., sentiment analysis, categorization) | Varies |
Analyze data (e.g., interpret spreadsheets or PDFs) | Varies |
Extract structured data (e.g., parse a resume, invoice details) | Varies |
AI costs depend on text size, complexity, or length of documents. Larger tasks may cost more credits, while small tasks may cost fewer.
Example of Credits in Action
Imagine a quick workflow to check someone’s public profile, gather recent news on their company, and then email you a summary:
Get a person’s profile
3 credits
Search for news on their company
3 credits
Retrieve the top 3 articles (each “Get website” call)
1 credit × 3 articles = 3 credits
Summarize the articles with AI (assume ~1 credits per summary)
1 credits × 3 articles = 3 credits
Send summary via email
0 credits
Total: ~12 credits
Note: Actual AI cost can vary if the articles are very long or short, but this illustrates the typical flow.
Keeping Track of Your Credits
Usage Dashboard: In Lutra, you can always see your current balance and consumption during task executions to avoid surprises.
Caching: If the same data is requested again soon, Lutra will reuse the cached version at no extra cost.
Monthly Allowance: Your plan includes a certain number of credits each month. If you use them up and still need more advanced data or AI calls, you can purchase credits in bulk or upgrade your plan.
For details on plan options and how to buy more credits, visit lutra.ai/pricing.