Budgeting for Agent Platform credits in 2027

Optimizely’s complimentary allowance for Agent Platform (formerly Opal) credits is due to end on 31 December 2026. If your teams use Mark, the assistant, you’ll want a 2027 figure before your budget round closes. This article shows how to build one, for digital directors, marketing operations leads and anyone who signs off software spend.

The credit figures here are Optimizely’s published averages, checked on 15 November 2026. I don’t cover prices: your Optimizely account team agrees those with you.

What Agent Platform (formerly Opal) credits are

Every time a Mark feature calls an AI model, it uses credits. Credits are pooled across all eligible Optimizely products and allocated to your organisation. To get more, you talk to your account administrator or your Optimizely account representative (Optimizely Mark credits (opens in a new tab)).

Optimizely renamed Opal to Agent Platform, and Mark is its assistant. You’ll still see the Opal name in a few places, such as the Opal Agent Usage dashboard.

From 1 October 2025 to 31 December 2026, each Agent Platform instance can use up to 200 complimentary credits a month. Optimizely reserves the right to change or end complimentary access at any time. If your usage regularly goes above 200 a month, your Optimizely account team may get in touch about a plan that fits how you use it.

What 200 credits buys

Optimizely groups agents into bands by the average credits a run uses: Basic 2, XS 10, S 30, M 70, L 130 and XL 200. Some examples:

So 200 credits covers about one Content Analysis run a month, or two Case Study Generation runs. Actual use varies with input size, context and model use. A workflow agent uses the sum of the agents it calls, with no extra charge for the workflow itself.

That’s enough to try the platform and prove a few use cases. A team that uses Mark every week will usually need a larger allocation.

An illustrative budget

The figures below are invented to show the method. They are not client data or a forecast. Say a content team plans four uses a month:

That’s about 17 times the complimentary allowance, or around 41,800 credits over 12 months. Even at half that, it’s well above 200 a month. The point of the exercise is to see, before you ask for budget, which use cases drive the number.

How to build your own number

1. List the use cases. Ask each team which agents they use or want to use, and why. Drop anything without an owner or an outcome.
2. Find the credit cost. Take the average for each agent from Optimizely’s credits documentation. Where an agent shows a range, use the top of it for the first pass. Optimizely has adjusted credit values before (in October 2025 and March 2026), so check them again when you set the budget.
3. Estimate runs a month. Use current usage if you have it (see below), and the planned volume if you don’t.
4. Add a margin. Averages vary and adoption tends to grow. A margin of 20 to 30 per cent is my suggestion, not Optimizely’s.
5. Attach a value to each use case. A use that saves a team a day a month is easy to defend. One nobody can describe is a candidate to cut.

Use the data you already have

If you already use Agent Platform, Optimizely gives you two sets of usage figures.

The Usage and billing dashboards in the Opti ID Admin Center are for the Super Admin and Billing Admin roles. For Mark, they show credits allocated, remaining and used for a date range, a daily usage chart, a 30-day balance history, and credits by user and by agent. The contract details show each allocation’s date, expiry date and source: Paid, Monthly Free or Bonus (Usage and billing dashboards (opens in a new tab)).

The Agent Usage dashboard in Optimizely Reporting shows agent runs, credits used, average credits per run, and the most active agents and users, compared with the previous period. It needs the Mark Administrator role. Optimizely notes that its credit figures “are for informational use only and are not used for billing” (Optimizely Reporting for Optimizely Mark (opens in a new tab)).

Pull both before you set a number. Three months of real usage by agent will beat any estimate.

Governing spend

Optimizely doesn’t support credit limits for individual users. Administrators control spend by granting or removing Mark access for each user in the Opti ID Admin Center, and users without access use no credits. Administrators can also turn generative AI off across Optimizely applications there.

The person who runs an agent is charged for it. For workflow agents started by a schedule, webhook or email, the charge goes to the workflow agent’s owner.

So access decisions are budget decisions. The person who approves access should know what a heavy user costs, and every scheduled workflow should have a named owner. Review usage by user each month and ask the owners of high-usage accounts what they’re getting for it.

Administrators are notified when the organisation reaches its credit limit, and can sign up for monthly usage notifications. Turn those on.

Questions to agree with your Optimizely account team

Optimizely’s documentation explains how credits are measured and used. Your commercial terms are agreed with your account team, so take these questions to them as you plan 2027:

1. What applies to our complimentary allocation from 1 January 2027?
2. How would a paid allocation be sized for our use cases?
3. What happens when we reach our credit limit?
4. Do unused credits expire or roll over?
5. Would a tailored plan suit our usage, and at what level of use?

Keep a note of the answers with your budget, so finance can see where each assumption came from.

My recommendation

Plan your 2027 AI use the way you plan any other budget line: by use case, from real usage data, with terms agreed in advance. Before the end of the year, pull your usage data, build the number by use case, and go through the five questions above with your account team. Then go to finance with a figure, a margin and the use cases that justify it.

What to do this month

1. Check who holds the Super Admin or Billing Admin role in Opti ID, and ask them to export the usage figures.
2. List every team using Mark and what for.
3. Build the use-case table above for your three biggest uses.
4. Book time with your Optimizely account team to go through the five questions.
5. Sign up for monthly credit usage notifications.