{"id":761,"date":"2024-05-07T11:42:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T11:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/docs\/how-are-the-credits-counted-when-using-autoptimize\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T08:43:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T08:43:42","password":"","slug":"how-are-the-credits-counted-when-using-autoptimize","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/knowledge-base\/article\/how-are-the-credits-counted-when-using-autoptimize\/","title":{"rendered":"How are the credits counted when using Autoptimize?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Autoptimize has an image optimization feature provided by ShortPixel that\u00a0processes and serves images on the fly via a fast CDN with a <a href=\"https:\/\/help.shortpixel.com\/article\/62-where-does-the-cdn-has-pops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">global presence<\/a>. Unlike ShortPixel Image Optimizer, Autoptimize does not optimize the physical files on your server.<\/p>\n<p>Autoptimize only <strong>optimizes\u00a0<\/strong>your images if they are viewed at least once from your front-end. Until that happens, the image will remain un-optimized. Here&#39;s more information about how Autoptimize&#39;s image optimization works: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.shortpixel.com\/article\/65-how-does-shortpixel-ai-cdn-work\" rel=\"noopener\">How does Autoptimize and its Image Optimization + CDN service work?<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Once the image is optimized, it is stored on the ShortPixel CDN servers and it can be served to your clients using the CDN traffic quota you purchased from ShortPixel. As long as there is enough CDN traffic quota available, your optimized images will be served from our CDN.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout-yellow\">\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/help.shortpixel.com\/article\/22-how-does-the-one-time-plan-work\" rel=\"noopener\">One-time<\/a> credits, the legacy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/help.shortpixel.com\/article\/26-how-do-monthly-subscriptions-work\" rel=\"noopener\">monthly<\/a>\u00a0plans and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shortpixel.com\/pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unlimited<\/a>\u00a0plans can be used to process images.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How much CDN traffic equals a credit?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1 credit = 5 MB\u00a0of CDN traffic<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Free\u00a0<\/strong>plan = 100 credits =\u00a0<strong>500 MB<\/strong>\u00a0of CDN traffic = ~500 visits\/month<\/li>\n<li><strong>$4.99<\/strong>\/month plan = 7,000 credits\/month = <strong>35 GB<\/strong>\u00a0of CDN traffic = ~35,000 visits\/month<\/li>\n<li><strong>$9.99<\/strong>\/month plan = 16,000 credits\/month =\u00a0<strong>80 GB<\/strong>\u00a0of CDN traffic = ~80,000 visits\/month<\/li>\n<li><strong>$29.99<\/strong>\/month plan = 55,000 credits\/month =\u00a0<strong>275 GB<\/strong>\u00a0of CDN traffic = ~275,000 visits\/month<\/li>\n<li><strong>$49.99<\/strong>\/month plan = 100,000 credits\/month = <strong>500 GB<\/strong>\u00a0of CDN traffic = ~500,000 visits\/month<\/li>\n<li><strong>$99.99<\/strong>\/month plan = 220,000 credits\/month = <strong>1.1 TB<\/strong> of CDN traffic = ~1,100,000 visits\/month<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"callout-green\">\n<p>If you purchase the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shortpixel.com\/pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unlimited plan<\/a>, you do not have to worry about how many credits you spend. The Unlimited plan just has a 500 GB CDN quota. If you exceed this limit, you will have to wait until the next month for the quota to be replenished, or you can buy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shortpixel.com\/pricing-one-time\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one-time credits<\/a>\u00a0and use them according to the figures below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Example<\/h3>\n<p>Say you own a\u00a0small website with about 100 pictures distributed between your pages, and it is visited monthly by 300 visitors.<\/p>\n<p>The 300 visitors will most likely generate less\u00a0than 300 MB of CDN traffic per month, and they won&#39;t exceed the free monthly CDN traffic, which is 500 MB.<\/p>\n<p>If tomorrow your website goes from having 100 pictures to 300, and you keep having the same number of visitors, you will use, on average, 900 MB of CDN traffic per month, and you will probably have to upgrade to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shortpixel.com\/pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unlimited plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What happens if I use my own CDN?<\/h2>\n<p>If you choose to use a different CDN than ShortPixel&#39;s, then no traffic will be counted. Instead,\u00a0<strong>every 30 days<\/strong>\u00a0you will use the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1 credit per every image size optimized.\u00a0<\/strong>The optimization happens when at least one visitor sees the image.<\/li>\n<li>Another credit if the image is delivered in WebP format.<\/li>\n<li>Another credit if the image is delivered in AVIF format.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That means a maximum of 3 credits per image size, every 30 days.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout-green\">\n<p>If you are using the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shortpixel.com\/pricing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unlimited plan<\/a>, you will not be restricted by the 500 GB monthly limit of CDN quota.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#39;s how you can use a different CDN with Autoptimize: <a href=\"https:\/\/help.shortpixel.com\/article\/76-can-i-use-a-different-cdn-with-your-service\" rel=\"noopener\">Can I use a different CDN with Autoptimize?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Autoptimize has an image optimization feature provided by ShortPixel that\u00a0processes and serves images on the fly via a fast CDN with a global presence. Unlike ShortPixel Image Optimizer, Autoptimize does not optimize the physical files on your server. Autoptimize only optimizes\u00a0your images if they are viewed at least once from your front-end. Until that happens, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[36],"glossaries":[],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-761","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-autoptimize"],"blocksy_meta":[],"year_month":"2026-04","word_count":485,"total_views":"5578","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"admin","author_nicename":"admin_mdli53m5","author_url":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/author\/admin_mdli53m5\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Autoptimize","term_url":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/knowledge-base\/category\/autoptimize\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"knowledge_base_info":[],"knowledge_base_slug":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/761\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"glossaries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossaries?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}