Meshy credits are the platform's usage currency. A full Meshy 6 generation costs 30 credits (20 for the mesh, 10 for texturing), the free plan includes 100 credits every month, and permanent credits never expire. Full plan details are on the Meshy pricing page. This guide covers what each task costs, how to earn free credits, and the habits that make one month of credits produce twenty-five usable models instead of five.
When a result isn't right, diagnose before you spend:
| What's wrong | Cheapest fix | Not this |
|---|---|---|
| Surface, texture, or colors | AI Texturing on the existing mesh | Regenerating the whole model |
| Topology or poly count | Remesh on the existing mesh | Regenerating the whole model |
| Holes or non-manifold geometry | AI Auto-Repair | Regenerating the whole model |
| Shape, proportions, silhouette | Regenerate, but fix the prompt first | Re-rolling the same prompt |
| Back or sides wrong (Image to 3D) | Regenerate with multi-view references | Repeated single-image attempts |
What Are Meshy Credits?
Meshy credits are tokens you spend to run generation and processing tasks. There are two kinds, and they behave differently:
| Monthly Credits | Permanent Credits | |
|---|---|---|
| Where they come from | Included with your subscription plan | Purchased separately, or earned in competitions and promotions |
| Expiry | Reset every month. Unused credits don't roll over | Never expire |
| Usage order | Spent first | Spent after monthly credits run out |
That usage order matters. Meshy always burns your expiring monthly balance before touching your permanent stash, so you never lose permanent credits to a reset. The full breakdown is in the official credits explainer.
To check your balance, open Settings → Subscription. You'll see both totals plus the date your monthly credits reset. If you cancel a paid plan, monthly credits go away at the end of the billing cycle. Permanent credits stay in your account.
How Many Credits Does Each Generation Task Cost?
Each task type has a fixed credit cost, and heavier tasks cost more. A full generation bills in two stages: one charge for the mesh, a second one for texturing. Here's what the common tasks cost on Meshy 6, per the official cost reference and the refund policy article (linked in the FAQ below):
| Task | Credits |
|---|---|
| Model stage (Text or Image to 3D, mesh only) | 20 |
| Texture stage | 10 (2K & 4K) / 15 (8K) |
| Full generation (mesh + texture) | 30 |
| Retexture (Text to Texture) | 10 |
| AI Auto-Repair | 10 |
| Animation (rigging + preset animations) | Free |
| Text to Motion (custom AI motion) | 3 |
| Download | Free (paid plans only) |
Downloads never consume credits, but exporting models out of Meshy requires a paid plan — and on Pro and above, downloads are unlimited. Costs on the legacy Meshy 5 workspace differ, and new features get their own pricing, so treat the pricing page as the source of truth if a number here ever disagrees with what you see in the app.
Why did I get charged twice for one model? You didn't. Generating the mesh and texturing it are two separate tasks with separate costs. If you only need the shape (say, for a single-color print), skip the texture stage and keep those credits.
A useful habit: Meshy shows the cost on or right next to the task button before you click (the texture panel, for example, lists its credit price above the Texture button). If a task doesn't show the price you expected, check the pricing page before running it.
API and MCP calls draw from the same credit balance as the web app, but the two aren't quite identical: API generations come out textured (there's no mesh-only option, so a generation costs the full 30 credits), and some features ship on the web app before they reach the API. Note that API access also requires a paid plan.
Is Meshy AI Free? What the Free Plan Actually Includes
Yes, Meshy has a free plan. You get 100 credits every month without entering a credit card, which covers exactly three full generations plus one repair, or five mesh-only ones. The allowance resets monthly on the 1st (UTC) for free accounts. Everything else the free tier includes is listed on the pricing page.
Two things to know before you build on the free tier:
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Licensing differs by plan. On the free plan, Meshy owns the generated output and licenses it to you under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Per the Terms of Use, you "can share and adapt the assets for any purpose, even commercially," as long as you credit Meshy. One wrinkle to know: anything you publish to the Meshy community page is released under CC0 (public domain).
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It's a plan, not a trial. The free tier doesn't expire after a week. Your allowance refills every month for as long as you keep the account.
Heads up: you can buy and spend a credit pack on the Free plan, but a pack only buys credits, not a subscription: pack-only accounts still miss subscriber features such as model downloads. If you need the full feature set, subscribe first and use packs to top up when a month runs short.
How to Get Free Meshy Credits in 2026 (6 Steps)
Every method below is official. Details and current reward amounts are on the linked pages (overview here).
Step 1: The monthly free allowance
Do nothing, get 100 credits. Free accounts refill automatically every month.
Step 2: Daily login rewards
Open Meshy on a new calendar day and run a generation, and that day's bonus is credited. You can collect up to 5 reward days in each 30-day cycle (30, 30, 50, 50, then 100 credits), which adds up to 260 extra credits, and they land as permanent credits, so they don't reset with the month. Reward days don't need to be consecutive. One gotcha: a tab left open overnight counts as the same session, so refresh the page at the start of a new day or the reward won't trigger. Details in the daily login guide.
Step 3: Onboarding task checklists
Every new account gets a Getting Started checklist in the workspace that pays credits per completed task: Free accounts get a 5-task list worth 100 credits (20 each), Pro accounts get a 6-task list worth 300 (50 each). The tasks are things you'd want to try anyway (Image to 3D, texture editing, animation), and rewards land in your balance automatically the moment a task completes. Check the list before assuming you've collected everything.
Step 4: Community rewards
Connecting your Discord account earns a one-time 100 credits, and every model featured by the community team earns 50. Sharing your work in the official Discord is how featured picks get noticed, and the Get Free Credits section under Settings → Subscription tracks all of these.
Step 5: Loyalty credits
Stay subscribed to Pro Monthly or Studio Monthly and each on-time renewal grants bonus permanent credits. The first renewal pays the most (500 credits on Pro, 1,000 on Studio), then the reward grows with your streak.
Loyalty fine print: the program covers Pro Monthly and Studio Monthly only. Yearly plans aren't included; canceling, a failed payment, or switching plans resets your streak to month one; bonuses cap from the 7th month (they keep coming, just stop growing); and only Stripe payments count — PayPal renewals can't be linked to a streak. Full schedule on the loyalty credits page.
Step 6: The Contributor Program
If you publish Meshy workflows, tutorials, or videos, you can apply as a contributor. Accepted creators get a free month of Pro or 1,000 credits on joining, then ongoing rewards for each approved monthly contribution (paid-plan users get 1,000 bonus credits a month instead of the Pro reward). Details on the program page.
Is Meshy AI Worth It? 5 Habits That Make Credits Go Further
Whether Meshy is worth it comes down to workflow, not luck. The same monthly allowance produces five usable models for someone who re-rolls every flaw and twenty-five for someone who repairs instead. These five habits are the difference.
Habit 1. Diagnose before regenerating
The single biggest source of wasted credits is treating every flaw as a generation problem. Use the decision tree at the top of this guide. Texture flaws get fixed with AI Texturing on the mesh you already have. Density and topology flaws get a Remesh (walkthrough in the auto-rigging workflow guide). Print-blocking geometry gets AI Auto-Repair. None of the three requires a new generation.
Habit 2. Fix the prompt, not your luck
Burn your Free Retries first. Every paid plan includes a stock of Free Retries that re-run the task at no credit cost, and your exact count is printed right on the regenerate control (x4 on Pro; higher tiers get more, up to 100 on Enterprise). Pure re-rolls belong there.
Once your Free Retries are spent, every regeneration is paid, and that's when this habit kicks in. Re-rolling an unchanged prompt buys you variance, not improvement. When the shape is genuinely wrong, make one targeted prompt edit per attempt: proportion language for proportion problems, material language for material problems. Each generation should teach you something. The full method is in the Text to 3D prompt guide.
Habit 3. Front-load quality on inputs, not attempts
For Image to 3D, five minutes preparing two to four clean reference angles beats any number of single-image re-rolls, especially when the back or sides come out wrong. Inputs are free. Attempts are not. The multi-view guide covers how to shoot and pick reference angles.
Habit 4. Set generation-time options instead of fixing downstream
Some choices cost nothing at generation time but cost credits or hours to fix later. Pick an A- or T-Pose for anything you plan to rig. Match the model type to your target (low-poly settings for real-time projects). Prompt with printing in mind if the model is headed to a printer. Every one of these prevents a paid correction later.
Habit 5. Batch consciously via API and MCP
Agent-driven workflows are powerful and spend credits at machine speed. Put a review step between "generate 20 variants" and "generate 20 more": inspect, shortlist, and only refine the keepers. If you're new to agent workflows, start with the Meshy MCP tutorial.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Meshy credits?
Meshy credits are the usage currency for generation and processing tasks. Each task consumes a set amount, monthly credits refill with your plan, and permanent credits never expire. The per-task cost matrix and plan allowances are maintained on the pricing page.
How many free credits do you get each month?
Free accounts get 100 credits every month, no credit card required. Daily login rewards can add up to 260 more per 30-day cycle, and community bonuses stack on top of that.
Do Meshy credits roll over?
No. Free accounts reset on the 1st of every month at 00:00 UTC. Paid plans reset monthly on the calendar date you subscribed or last upgraded, even on yearly plans. Unused monthly credits don't roll over, meaning a reset tops your balance up to the plan maximum instead of stacking on top of it: with 400 credits left on a 1,000-credit plan, the reset adds 600 and you start the new cycle at 1,000, not 1,400. Permanent credits never expire, and Meshy spends your monthly balance first so permanent credits are never wasted on a reset.
Does the Meshy API cost more credits than the web app?
No, equivalent tasks cost the same and draw from the same credit balance. But the lineups aren't identical: the API outputs textured models, some features arrive on the web app first, and API access requires a paid plan while the web app has a free tier.
What does "This generation was cancelled, 20 credits will be refunded" mean?
It means you cancelled a generation while it was still waiting in the queue, so Meshy refunded the full model-stage cost (20 credits) automatically. Tasks cancelled after processing has started aren't refunded, while tasks that fail because of a technical error on Meshy's side are refunded in full, and generations blocked by the content filter aren't charged at all. The full policy is in the refund reference.
The Bottom Line
Credit costs and policies evolve as Meshy ships new features, and this guide gets re-audited whenever they do. For the official word on any edge case — refunds, resets, loyalty schedules, or the full per-task cost matrix — the Credit section of the Meshy Help Center is the living reference, and the price shown in the app before you run a task is always the final answer.
