doc.cheap

insufficient_credits (402)

This month's free credits and the paid credits are both used up, so neither can cover one recognition.

Cause

A credit is reserved before the image reaches the engine. It comes from this month's free credits first, and from the paid credits once those are used up. When neither can cover the reservation, the call is refused there. Nothing is recognized and nothing is charged.

An account whose email address is not yet confirmed cannot draw its free credits. It meets this code as soon as its paid credits are gone.

A balance can never go negative: the refusal is the only outcome.

The message

This month's free credits and your paid balance are both used up; top up to continue. Free credits return on 2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z.

The last sentence names the next reset: 00:00 UTC on the first of the next month.

The fix

Top up, then retry, or wait for the first of the month, when the free credits are set back to 100. GET /v1/usage reports both balances: free_allowance.remaining_credits and paid_balance_credits. Together they are the number of documents left – one credit is one US cent, and one recognized document draws one.

event_id

event_id is always null on this code. It is a refusal the caller is meant to handle, so nothing is recorded as a failure to look at. The service answers and writes one log line.

The whole catalogue, grouped by what a caller does with it, is on errors.

The response

{
  "error": {
    "code": "insufficient_credits",
    "message": "This month's free credits and your paid balance are both used up; top up to continue. Free credits return on 2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z.",
    "docs_url": "https://doc.cheap/docs/errors/insufficient_credits",
    "request_id": "req_9e6b1f7c-2d4a-4b83-9c51-7f0ad3e8b642",
    "event_id": null
  }
}