Understand Sparks

Models bill by the token, the millisecond and the pixel: three units nobody wants to think about while writing a post. joli.studio replaces them with a single one, the Spark. An organization receives them, spends them, buys more. The dollar never leaves our servers.

What an action costs

A cost is always written the same way: the glyph, then the number. No spelled-out unit, no “about” sign. An estimate and an expense look identical — the context tells you which is which: before the call, the button carries the estimate; afterwards, the history line carries the real figure.

Action	Cost
Rewrite a sentence	1
Adapt a caption while adapting a post	1
Analyze your tracking results	1
Write a reference’s profile	1
One turn of a reference interview	1
Suggest hook variants	1
Write a caption	2
Analyze a website	4
Ask the chat for a change	4
Write a post from a slot	6
Try a reference in a scene	8
Draw three castings for a reference	11
Generate a square image (1:1), high quality	14
Generate a 4:5 image, high quality	17
Generate a 9:16 image, high quality	23
Draw a reference’s sheet, from two photos	26
Write the strategy	27

Three caveats beat a round number. An image is paid for by area and by quality: a square costs less than a 9:16, and high quality, which posts get by default, costs more than standard — 4, 5 and 6 for the same images. Quality is set for the whole post, and every level shows its cost. Each attached image then adds up: a 4:5 image in high quality goes from 17 to 20 with a reference’s sheet, and to 23 with the series anchor on top. Finally, a compound action — a post and its images, a conversion into a carousel — has no fixed price: its estimate is worked out on the spot, from the format, the ratio and the number of images you chose.

Costs always appear in the same place: anything that calls a model carries the blue flame, shows its estimated cost before and its real cost after, and can be undone.

Where to read your balance

The bottom of the sidebar permanently shows Sparks · September with the current organization’s balance; the card also flags an overdue payment. Click it for the detail: the organization’s page, Sparks and plan tab.

The top card, Organization balance, gives the total and then how it breaks down:

• the “subscription · expires October 25” part — the current slice’s Sparks;
• the “top-ups · never expire” part.

On the right, the current month: what has been spent, how much of the subscription is already used, and the daily pace. No forecast for the end of the month: the line only adds “low balance” when less than a tenth of the subscription is left, and “balance empty, AI calls on hold” when nothing is.

What expires, what stays

Spending takes whatever expires soonest first, then the grants that never expire, oldest to newest. In other words: you burn through the month’s subscription before touching your top-ups, and you never lose Sparks you could have spent.

The operations log

Still in the Sparks and plan tab, the Operations card lists grants and spending, with three filters: All, Top-ups, Spending. Every expense carries its project and its action: “site analysis”, “strategy”, “image generated”, “post written”, “review”, “converted to slides”… A member reads this history; only admins buy.

When there are none left

Before each call, the estimate is reserved on the balance; the real cost replaces it once the action is done, and a canceled action gives back what it didn’t spend. When the balance runs a little short, a small overdraft is tolerated — about ten Sparks — and taken from the next grant.

The app stays entirely usable: only the AI actions stop. A refused call says “Out of Sparks: the organization balance is empty.” or, when you are just short, “6 Sparks short.” with the balance left, plus a Top up button that takes you straight to the Sparks and plan tab of the organization concerned.