Credits, charges, and refunds
When credits are charged, when they return, and what a retry costs
NicheIQ charges for a defined piece of research when that work is queued. Choosing ideas, comparing them, and reviewing a Deep Research scope do not spend credits.
Before a charge
Every paid start or add-on shows its current price first. The request sends that amount back for a final check. If the price changed, nothing starts and nothing is charged until you review the updated confirmation.
If the balance is too low, the work remains unstarted. Adding credits does not automatically restart the request; you choose when to try again.
Discovery and Check my idea
Starting either run charges the amount shown on the New Research page. That payment covers the first research phase and the candidate report it produces.
You see the ranked ideas before paying for Deep Research. Optional later actions, such as another idea batch or another separately priced deliverable, show their own price before they are queued.
Deep Research
Saving one to three ideas, comparing them, adding private build limits, and reviewing the confirmation are free. The confirmation page shows the exact saved candidates, the current price, your balance, and the balance after starting.
Deep Research uses one flat charge for the confirmed run, not a separate charge for each selected idea. If the shortlist or price changes before the request is accepted, the page asks you to review the updated confirmation and states that nothing was charged or started.
Refunds and retries
If a protected run fails or cannot produce enough usable data, its charged credits return automatically. Eligible cancellations also show the amount actually refunded. The job page and dashboard display the refund record; rely on that receipt rather than assuming that every stopped action produced one.
A refund restores credits. It does not make a retry free. Retrying or resuming a refunded stage can be charged again when the new attempt is queued, and the page shows the amount before that happens.
Work that finished successfully is not undone by a later-stage failure. For example, if Deep Research fails after Discovery completed, the Discovery candidate pool remains available while the failed paid stage follows its own refund and retry rules.