Shared credits: budget, payer, and expiry

Numbers on the sharing rail

Number	Meaning
Shared credits	This authorization's lifetime total budget, not renewed per visit or the owner's wallet.
Used	Cumulative owner-paid usage since creation, not reset by enabling or funding-mode changes.
Generating	Reserved owner-paid amounts for accepted, unsettled tasks.
Remaining budget	Total minus used and pending; actual availability also depends on valid funds and account status.

Shared total and remaining budget: an example

Spent 250Pending 150Remaining budget 600

1,000 − 250 − 150 = 600

A 600-credit remaining budget does not guarantee a 600-credit submission; wallet or unexpired dedicated funds also matter.

Real-time account funds

No early reservation at creation; reserve from the owner on submission.

Dedicated sharing funds

Reserve in advance; original credit expiry still applies.

Example total: 1,000 credits, not your balance or a fixed image price.

Two funding modes

Dedicated funds reduce competing uses, not extend expiry. Disabling, expiry, reductions, switching, or deletion release unused funds under existing rules; expired funds do not become spendable again.

Explicit auto-replenishment fills expiry-caused shortfalls from currently available credits. It does not replace all spent credits forever or guarantee generation without funds.

Mode	When credits are reserved	Remember
Real-time account funds	Only a budget at creation; owner wallet funds are reserved on task submission.	Maximum total 99,999. Other tasks share wallet funds, so budget is not sufficient balance.
Dedicated sharing funds	Owner credits are reserved on creation or increases.	Their original expiry remains, even during a valid link's lifetime.

What changes while moving the slider

Enter budget directly on creation. An enabled shared-credit record's expanded history provides a slider and integer field; direct input helps with the large real-time range.

Dragging, typing, and switching modes edit drafts. Only successful Update share settings changes effective budget/funding; participants use saved values before then.

Number	Draft behavior	Real change
Shared budget	Changes with slider/input.	Effective after successful update.
Used/generating	Unchanged by slider; real tasks can update them.	Actual settlement/reservation.
Real-time account remaining	Unchanged by budget draft.	Real consumption, recharge, or expiry.
Dedicated account remaining	Allocation preview; an increase generally lowers remaining preview.	Reserve/release on successful save, not preview.
Maximum 99999	Fixed real-time budget upper limit.	Not wallet balance or guaranteed funds; not shown as this fixed label for dedicated mode.

Real-time: budget 100 to 200, balance unchanged

The same test share moves from 100 to 200 while account balance stays unchanged, used/pending stay zero, and maximum stays 99999. It does not reserve early; subsequent submission checks real funds.

99999 is an allowed maximum, not a gift. Large remaining budget cannot pay with insufficient or expired funds. Example figures are not your balance.

**Real-time draft: budget 100**
Maximum 99999 is the budget limit, not account balance. No usage or pending tasks in this test example.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

**Real-time draft: budget 200, account balance unchanged**
Budget increases without early funding reservation. Maximum, used, and pending stay unchanged. Unsaved draft does not alter the effective budget.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Dedicated: higher draft budget, lower balance preview

With no existing dedicated funds, a 100 draft previews 100 fewer credits available for other account uses; a 200 draft previews 200 fewer. Neither screenshot was saved, so the actual balance did not change.

Existing unused dedicated funds and available wallet funds enter adjustment previews. Reductions may release unused funds, not refund historical consumption. Saving rechecks concurrent spending and expiry.

There is no fixed maximum-99999 label here. Range depends on funds and record. Auto-replenishment is a separate saved option, not enabled by dragging.

**Dedicated draft: budget 100, lower projected account balance**
Assigning 100 previews 100 fewer credits available for other account uses. This unsaved change reserved no funds.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

**Dedicated draft: budget 200, another 100 lower in the preview**
Another 100 reduces the preview by 100. Used/pending do not change. This mode has no fixed-99999 label; saving checks and allocates funds.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

Confirm the payer on each submission

Generation opens confirmation in either view. Shared-credit collaboration defaults to owner funds with personal funds optional; personal-credit collaboration offers self-payment only. Check first runs, regeneration, and retries.
Estimated cost and available funds correspond to the selected payer. Shared availability is constrained by this link and valid funds, not the entire owner wallet. Switching payer does not change image settings.
Choice applies only to this submission; the next confirmation rereads funds and defaults by mode. Cancel creates no task or consumption.
Shared-fund shortage blocks explicitly; it never silently switches to self-payment. Choose self-payment yourself if intended.
Self-payment leaves shared budget untouched but still uses owner content, capabilities, and storage.
Zero budget does not mean read-only: permitted non-paid edits or explicitly allowed self-paid generation can remain.

**Payment confirmation: shared credits**
Available 100 is this test link's availability, not the whole owner wallet. Estimated credits belong to the current model and settings, not a fixed price. Capture was canceled without generation.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

**The same request with personal credits**
Available credits now show the participant's own balance; the estimate is unchanged. Choice is per request, with owner-canvas content and no collection rights. Capture was canceled.
Actual interface · Tutorial example, not your account

After budget changes or disabling

Increasing budget does not clear history: 1,000 total, 250 used, and 150 pending becomes 800 remaining when total rises to 1,200, not 1,200.

Follow the displayed minimum. Same-mode history edits cannot go below used plus pending. Exhaustion blocks new owner-paid requests, not accepted tasks.

Disabling/expiry blocks new tasks; accepted tasks continue with the original payer. Actual-use costs can differ from estimates. Disabling is not canceling charges.

Re-enabling or changing funding mode neither resets cumulative usage nor refreshes credit expiry.