Solution · Image and video AI
Image and video generation is expensive per request.
When each request costs a lot, a handful of farmed accounts adds up quickly. Darkmeter keeps the allowance with the person, not the email.
What you are seeing
Why are our image credits gone by Tuesday?
Generation products often hand out free credits at signup. Repeat signups turn that into a free supply for one person.
- Each request is costly, so a handful of accounts adds up quickly.
- Free credits at signup turn into a free supply for one person.
- Images and videos cost different amounts.
- Failing silently when credits run out looks like a bug.
Along the whole flow
A generation flow
Darkmeter sits at four points along the way. Each one is a call your backend already makes, and a decision you control.
1 · Signup grant
Free credits are handed out.
Links the signup to devices and emails already seen.
Signup GuardLimit2 · Generate
Each image or video costs credits.
Takes usage in your own unit, so a video can count for more.
Usage GuardAllow3 · The cap
Credits across accounts reach the cap.
Applies one cap per person, not per email.
Usage GuardCool down4 · The message
The person needs to know what happens next.
Gives you a retry time you can show.
Usage GuardCool down
Case by case
The situations you will actually meet.
Pick one. See the call your backend makes, what Darkmeter answers, and what the person is shown.
Your backend ⇄ Darkmeter
Illustrative situations and wording. Verdicts and reason names are a preview of the planned API.
Before and after
A free-credit launch, twice
An illustration, not a measurement: the same events, with the decision made at the right moment.
Without Darkmeter
- Free credits go out at signup.
- A few people sign up again and again.
- Video requests drain the pool.
- The pool is empty before real users arrive.
With Darkmeter
- Free credits go out at signup.
- Repeat signups get a smaller grant.
- Heavy devices pause at your cap.
- Real users still find credits when they arrive.
Questions
Bring us your free tier.
Tell us how your free tier works and where it leaks. We will map it to the four points above.