What AI Credits in Social Media Tools Actually Buy

An AI credit is a unit of generation, and almost nobody defines it the same way. Later says one credit writes one caption or three ideas and gives Starter five a month. Metricool meters credits per brand. Sprout Social attaches 100 monthly credits to every seat. Sendible, Publer and Buffer publish no cap and say so in plain words. That spread decides whether an AI feature is a tool or a teaser, so this guide reads the six pricing pages and quotes what each one states, as checked on October 15, 2026.

Later is the only page that defines the unit

Later's comparison table gives the clearest definition we found: "AI credits are used to power Later's AI features: Ideas and Caption Writer. 1 credit generates 3 ideas or 1 caption."

The allowance is 5 per month on Starter, 50 on Growth and 100 on Scale. Starter is $18.75 USD per month billed yearly, Growth is $37.50 and Scale is $82.50.

Five credits a month means five captions. Anyone posting daily runs out in the first week, which makes the Starter allowance a trial rather than a workflow.

Later does sell more, but not on the cheapest tier. Growth and Scale list "Extra AI credits ( $3.75 USD/month for 100 credits/month)" while Starter states "Extra Social Sets, users and AI credits not available".

So the cheapest route to 100 captions a month on Later is Growth plus one credit pack: $37.50 plus $3.75, which is $41.25 per month by our arithmetic from the October 15, 2026 page.

Metricool meters credits per brand, not per account

Metricool's planner table lists the AI Social Media Assistant at "5 credits per brand/month" on Free, "20 credits per brand/month" on Starter and "35 credits per brand/month" on Advanced. Custom is listed as "Custom".

Per brand is the important word. An agency on Advanced with 15 brands has 15 separate pools of 35, not one pool of 525, as the table words it.

Metricool also makes one feature spend from that pool on the cheaper tiers. Its AI Alt Text Generator reads "Uses AI credits" on Free and Starter and "Included in your plan (no credits needed)" on Advanced and Custom.

Recurring Scheduling gets the same treatment in reverse: the table marks it "Included in your plan (no credits needed)" on the two upper tiers. Metricool Starter is listed from $20 per month on annual billing, Advanced from $53.

Because Metricool prices by brand rather than by person, a credit pool per brand follows the shape of its bill. We set that model against seat pricing in Metricool against Sprout Social.

Sprout Social gives every seat the same 100 credits

Sprout's plan overview lists "Monthly AI agent credits per seat" at 100 on Essentials, Standard, Professional and Advanced. The number does not rise with the tier, as read on October 15, 2026.

The prices do. Essentials is $79 per seat per month on annual billing and $99 billed monthly. Standard is $199, Professional is $299 and Advanced is $399 per seat per month.

That means the credits come with the person, not the plan. Four people on Essentials hold 400 credits between them for $316 per month by our arithmetic on the annual rate.

Four people on Advanced hold the same 400 credits for $1,596 per month. Whatever the upper tiers buy, more generation is not part of it on the published table.

Sprout now names the feature Trellis and markets it as an AI agent and "your AI teammate" rather than a caption writer, which is a different claim from Later's and harder to price per unit.

Sendible, Publer and Buffer publish no cap

Sendible puts "Unlimited AI credits" in the bullet list of its cheapest plan, Core, at $35 per month with USD selected. Its feature table lists AI Assist across every tier.

Publer puts its version one tier up. Business, at "$10.00 / month" or "$8.00 / month billed yearly", lists "Unlimited AI prompts" with the note "Generate as much AI-content as you need, both text and images, at no additional cost".

Buffer's comparison table describes its AI Assistant as "Refine and repurpose your content using AI. Unlimited credits." and marks it Included on Free, Essentials and Team.

Buffer does meter one AI feature. AI replies are listed as "5 suggestions per week" on Free and Unlimited on Essentials and Team, and saved replies drop to "1 saved reply" on Free.

Buffer's free tier is the one worth testing an AI claim on, because it costs nothing to check. Its other ceilings are set out in Buffer, Later and Hootsuite free plans.

None of the three pages explains what stops abuse of an unlimited allowance. Publer's scheduling footnote is the nearest thing: "While we offer unlimited scheduling in the paid plans, we enforce daily posting limits to prevent spamming and abuse."

Two pages that do not publish a number at all

Hootsuite's plans page states "Every plan runs on Wisdom, your AI teammate" and lists "Generate posts and images with AI" on Standard at $99 per user per month on annual billing.

It does not quantify that. We read the plans page and its feature comparison with a headless browser as well as a fetch, and could not find a credit, prompt or generation allowance in Hootsuite's official documentation as of October 15, 2026.

Agorapulse is the same. Its table lists an AI Writing Assistant, an AI alt text generator and "Organization Context AI" without a volume figure, and reserves "AI-powered reply suggestions" for its unpriced Custom tier.

Teams that would rather pay a model provider directly tend to end up running their own pipeline instead, which has its own billing unit. We costed that route in n8n Cloud against self-hosted.

What a month of AI output costs

• Later Starter: 5 captions a month at $18.75, with no option to buy more on that tier.
• Later Growth: 50 captions at $37.50, plus 100 more for $3.75 per month.
• Metricool Free: 5 credits per brand per month, with alt text drawing from the same pool.
• Metricool Advanced: 35 credits per brand per month from $53, with alt text no longer charged.
• Sprout Social: 100 credits per seat per month on every tier, from $79 to $399 per seat.
• Sendible Core: "Unlimited AI credits" at $35 per month, with unlimited users on the plan.
• Publer Business: "Unlimited AI prompts" at $8 per month billed yearly, text and images.
• Buffer: AI Assistant with "Unlimited credits" on all three tiers, including Free.

How to read a credit line before you buy

• Ask what one credit produces. Only Later states it: one caption or three ideas.
• Ask what the pool attaches to. Sprout ties it to the seat, Metricool to the brand, Sendible to the account.
• Check whether a second feature eats the same pool, as Metricool's alt text does on Free and Starter.
• Check whether you can top up. Later sells 100 credits for $3.75 a month, but not on Starter.
• Treat "unlimited" as uncapped until a fair use clause says otherwise, the same reading we apply to task meters in Zapier tasks against Make credits.
• Count the posts you actually publish before you count credits, because the networks cap that separately. See Instagram and TikTok API limits for schedulers.

Frequently asked questions

How many AI credits does Later give you?

Five per month on Starter, 50 on Growth and 100 on Scale. Later states that one credit generates three ideas or one caption, so Starter is five captions a month.

Can you buy extra AI credits?

On Later, yes, from the Growth tier upward: $3.75 USD per month for 100 credits per month. Starter states that extra social sets, users and AI credits are not available.

Does Sprout Social give more AI credits on higher plans?

No. Its plan overview lists 100 monthly AI agent credits per seat on Essentials, Standard, Professional and Advanced, while the seat price rises from $79 to $399 per month on annual billing.

Which social media tool has unlimited AI?

Three say so in writing. Sendible lists "Unlimited AI credits" on Core at $35 per month, Publer lists "Unlimited AI prompts" on Business, and Buffer describes its AI Assistant as unlimited credits on every tier.

Does Hootsuite publish an AI usage limit?

We could not find one in its official documentation as of October 15, 2026. The plans page says every plan runs on Wisdom and lists AI post and image generation, but gives no credit or prompt figure.

Are AI credits per user or per account?

It depends on the vendor. Sprout counts 100 per seat, Metricool counts 5 to 35 per brand per month, and Later counts a single monthly pool per account on each tier.

Bottom line

If AI drafting is the reason you are buying, the metered tools are the expensive ones. Sendible at $35 per month and Publer at $8 per month billed yearly both publish no cap, and Buffer publishes none on its free tier.

If you are buying for other reasons, read the credit line as a feature flag rather than a budget. Five credits a month tells you the vendor does not expect that feature to carry your workflow.

All figures reflect each vendor's own pricing page on October 15, 2026, exclude tax and VAT, and can change without notice. Our general method for these pages is in how to read a social media tool pricing page.