# What is an AI credit

CloudFiles AI usage is billed via AI credits, consumed when processing a file (per page) and when querying it, with duplicate files reusing an existing Processed Document ID to avoid extra charges.

> Kind: FAQ · Updated: Jul 4, 2026

CloudFiles AI provides a way to query documents usign natural language prompts. These queries can be used to extract information from documents, to classify documents or to summarize documents.

Uses of CloudFiles AI are billed using AI credits. An AI credit is consumed in 2 ways -
- Processing a file - A files is needed to be processed once for AI querying. While processing a file, an AI credit is consumed for each page of the file
- Querying a file - An AI credit is consumed for each query on the file

## Duplicate File Handling

CloudFiles prevents unnecessary re-processing of duplicate files. When a file is submitted for processing, its content is verified using hashing. If the hash matches an already processed file, CloudFiles reuses the existing Processed Document ID instead of processing it again.

This means no additional AI credits are consumed for duplicates, saving credits when the same file is uploaded multiple times.

> **Note** — Duplicate file handling is currently supported only for PDF files without the "Pages to Process" option applied.