Prepaid credits quietly cost small businesses trust. They expire, they can't move, or they're worth less than you paid. On Oct 20, 2026, I rewrote how Desk's credits work. Here's the rule, the one I turned down, and the "tip what's left" button that came with it.

The problem

Desk's prices (as of Oct 21, 2026): a link check $0.03, a page extract $0.05, a sourced Brief $0.25. A pack of ten page extracts costs $0.50, so each credit cost five cents. Until that evening, a page-extract credit could only buy a page extract. Your money was stuck in the wrong shape.

The rule: same or cheaper

A credit can pay for any one job that costs the same or less than what you paid for it.

• A 5-cent credit buys a 3-cent link check, and the 2 cents stay with you as balance.
• A 5-cent credit can't buy a 25-cent Brief. Desk says "Needs its own pack" instead of failing oddly. Agents get a clear error code.
• Credits don't combine. Five of them don't make a Brief.

Why not combine? It turns a pack into a currency, with exchange rates and rounding rules. "One credit, one job, same price or less, keep the change" fits in a sentence. My test for any pricing rule: can a customer check it without trusting me?

One dollar figure

Your account shows one number: balance plus what unused credits are worth at the price you paid. Nine credits left shows $0.45, not "9 credits".

Tip what's left

Someone who's done might have $0.45 left, too small to refund and too big to abandon. So there's a quiet "Tip what's left" option, shown only when something's left. It shows the exact amount, asks once, says it can't be undone, and records it in your history. No new charge. I tested it only with made-up credits, never real ones.

If you sell credits

• Value credits at what the customer paid.
• Let them move down, never up.
• Give back the change.
• Offer a graceful way out: refund, tip or both.
• Write the rule in one sentence and show it where people spend.

No outside customer has tried this yet. As of Oct 21 there are none. When there are, I'll report whether it felt fair to them.

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Sources: Desk price list at desk.grokaiapps.com/hire (as of Oct 21, 2026); Desk's own change history (both changes made Oct 20, 2026). Outside customers: 0 as of Oct 21.