---
title: "credit.consumed"
description: "QuotaStack sends this when a charge takes credits out of a balance. A consume call and a committed [reservation](/docs/concepts/reservations) both raise it."
---

# credit.consumed

Fired when credits are consumed (debit ledger entries committed).

## When it fires

QuotaStack sends this when a charge takes credits out of a balance. A consume call and a committed [reservation](/docs/concepts/reservations) both raise it.

## When it does not fire

QuotaStack does not send this when the charge costs nothing. A metric priced at zero moves no credits, so there is nothing to report. A charge that fails for want of credits sends nothing. Closing a hold with `actual_units: 0` sends nothing either.

## Payload — `data`

| Field | Type | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| `id` | string (uuid) | required |  |
| `tenant_id` | string (uuid) | required |  |
| `customer_id` | string (uuid) | required |  |
| `environment` | string | required | Which environment this resource lives in. Determined by the API key prefix used (`qs_live_…` → live, `qs_test_…` → sandbox). `live` `sandbox` |
| `delta` | integer (int64) | required | Millicredits. Positive for credits, negative for debits. |
| `type` | string | required | `plan_grant` `topup` `consumption` `reservation` `release` `expiry` `adjustment` |
| `source` | string | optional | `plan_grant` `topup` `promotional` `compensation` `referral` `manual` `migration` `null` |
| `credit_block_id` | string (uuid) | optional |  |
| `billable_metric_key` | string | optional |  |
| `cost_units` | integer (int64) | optional | How many metric units the customer used. Unit: a count of billable metric units, not credits. |
| `exchange_rate` | integer (int64) | optional |  |
| `idempotency_key` | string | required |  |
| `reference_id` | string (uuid) | optional |  |
| `metadata` | object | required |  |
| `created_at` | string (date-time) | required |  |

### Example payload

```json
{
  "event_id": "0192f5a4-7c31-7b8e-9a2d-4f6c8e1b3a51",
  "event_type": "credit.consumed",
  "tenant_id": "0192f5a4-7c31-7b8e-9a2d-4f6c8e1b3a01",
  "environment": "live",
  "customer_id": "0192f5a4-7c31-7b8e-9a2d-4f6c8e1b3a05",
  "external_customer_id": "user_42",
  "created_at": "2026-07-28T12:21:00Z",
  "idempotency_key": "usage:msg_001",
  "data": {
    "transaction_id": "0192f5a4-7c31-7b8e-9a2d-4f6c8e1b3a32",
    "credits": -1500,
    "billable_metric_key": "chat_message",
    "balance_after": 73500
  }
}
```

## What to do

Write the spend into your own records. `credits` reads negative here, because the balance went down.

## Which calls fire this

- [`POST /v1/customers/{customer_id}/credits/adjust`](/docs/api/credits#adjustCustomerCredits)
- [`POST /v1/customer-by-external-id/{external_id}/credits/adjust`](/docs/api/credits#adjustCustomerCreditsByExternalId)
- [`POST /v1/reservations/{id}/commit`](/docs/api/reservations#commitReservation)
- [`POST /v1/entitlements/consume`](/docs/api/entitlements#consumeEntitlement)
- [`POST /v1/usage`](/docs/api/usage#recordUsage)
- [`POST /v1/usage/batch`](/docs/api/usage#recordUsageBatch)

## See also

- [Credits](/docs/concepts/credits)
- [Usage](/docs/api/usage)

## Delivery

QuotaStack guarantees **at-least-once** delivery. An event may be delivered more than once if your endpoint returns a non-2xx response, the connection fails, or the request exceeds the delivery timeout.

**Delivery timeout:** 5 seconds per attempt. If your endpoint does not return a 2xx within 5 seconds, the attempt is treated as a failure and retried. Not configurable today.

**One webhook URL per tenant.** Multiple URLs and per-event routing are not supported. Configure the URL via the tenant config endpoint.

### Retry schedule

If delivery fails (non-2xx response, timeout, or network error), QuotaStack retries with exponential backoff:

| Attempt | Delay after previous |
|---|---|
| 1 | Immediate |
| 2 | 30 seconds |
| 3 | 5 minutes |
| 4 | 30 minutes |
| 5 | 2 hours |
| 6 | 8 hours |
| 7 | 24 hours |

After 7 failed attempts, the event is moved to a dead letter queue. Dead-lettered events are not lost — you can requeue them yourself, from the dashboard (Activity → Webhooks → Redeliver) or the API:

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.quotastack.io/v1/webhooks/events/{event_id}/redeliver \
  -H "X-API-Key: $QS_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: redeliver:{event_id}"
```

Redelivery resets the event to `pending` with a fresh retry schedule (7 new attempts). The next attempt signs with your **current** secret — useful when the event dead-lettered because of a secret rotation or an endpoint outage you have since fixed. Only `dead_letter` events can be redelivered; the call returns `409` for events in any other status.

### Handling duplicates

Because delivery is at-least-once, your webhook handler should be idempotent. Use the `webhook-id` header for deduplication — if you have already processed an event with that ID, return 200 and skip processing.