Why Are My Credits Deducted Every Time I Refresh the Page?

If you’ve noticed your ChannelCrawler credits decreasing after refreshing a search results page, you’re not alone. This is one of the most common questions new users ask when exploring the free or trial version of our platform. Here’s why it happens, and how you can avoid losing credits unnecessarily.

The Question

“I got 200 free credits, but every time I refresh the page, credits are deducted even though I’m not using them. Why is that?”

This is a natural question for anyone testing ChannelCrawler for the first time. It can seem confusing when you’re simply revisiting the same set of YouTube channels or reloading a results page.

The Short Answer

Refreshing a page triggers a new search request to our database. Each time a results page loads, even if it’s the same one you viewed before, ChannelCrawler performs a fresh query to ensure the data is accurate and up to date.

Because this process involves fetching live creator data from our system, each reload counts as a new usage and therefore deducts credits.

How to Avoid Wasting Credits

To make the most of your available credits, try the following:

• Avoid pressing Refresh or reloading your browser tab while viewing results.
• Use the navigation arrows or the Next Page button instead. These keep you within the same search session and won’t trigger new queries.
• Review all the channels on a page before moving forward so you don’t need to revisit or reload the same results.
• Save any channels you want to return to later. Saved lists do not consume additional credits when reopened.

For a step-by-step guide, see our walkthrough on how to use lists effectively or browse our Help Centre.

Why This System Works This Way

Each ChannelCrawler search result contains daily-updated YouTube channel data, such as subscriber count, average monthly views, upload activity, and whether contact emails are available.

To maintain accuracy across over 160 million creator profiles, our system runs new data requests every time a page loads. This ensures you’re always viewing the most recent data, rather than cached or outdated information.

Credit-based usage helps us manage this process efficiently and fairly for all users, both free and paid.

What We’re Improving

We understand that losing credits through a simple page refresh can be frustrating. Our team is actively working on ways to make credit usage more efficient.

You can follow progress on these updates in our Products & Tools section or check our Walkthrough Videos for the latest tutorials.

Have a Question Like This?

We’re creating a new Customer Q&A series featuring real user questions about how ChannelCrawler works, from credit usage to search tips and outreach tools.

If you’d like your question featured, get in touch using our contact form. Your feedback helps us make ChannelCrawler better for everyone.