AppSumo credits are store credit that you can spend only on AppSumo, at a fixed 1 credit to 1 US dollar. You usually get them by choosing credits instead of your original payment when you refund a deal, through AppSumo’s shutdown guarantee, or by redeeming an old AppSumo gift card. They never expire, and you apply them with a toggle at checkout. But they can’t be turned into cash, sent to another person or moved between accounts, so once money becomes credit, it stays inside AppSumo.
Last updated 31 October 2026.
What AppSumo says credits are
We read AppSumo’s Help Center and Terms of Use on 31 October 2026. Its AppSumo credits article (last updated 23 October 2025) defines them as “a currency that can only be used on AppSumo and can be applied toward the majority of purchases from AppSumo.” The same page states the rate: “1 ASC = 1 USD.”
The Terms of Use (last modified 11 February 2025) say much the same, with one firm line: “AppSumo Credits may not be returned or redeemed for cash.” The help article agrees, saying credits “are not redeemable for cash value.”
So think of a credit as a gift-card balance with one shop. It’s a balance you’ve already paid for, at face value. It doesn’t grow, it earns nothing, and it isn’t an investment of any kind. 100 credits today buy $100 of deals today, and they’ll buy $100 of deals in three years.
How you get AppSumo credits
AppSumo’s pages describe three routes. We couldn’t find any other on its help pages today.
1. Choosing credits when you refund. The Refund FAQ says: “For some purchases, you may see the option to refund your payment in AppSumo credits.” Not every purchase is eligible, and AppSumo asks you to email support@appsumo.com if you’re unsure. You pick the method in the last step of the refund flow, and once the refund is processed you can’t switch it.
2. The We Got Your Back guarantee. When a covered product shuts down, AppSumo pays its cover as store credit. The guarantee page (updated 31 August 2026) says: “Store credits are issued as AppSumo Credits, which are not exchangeable for cash.” Plus members can get credit for 100% of the price of a Select or LaunchPad product that closes during the coverage period; non-Plus customers can get 50% for a Select product that closes within 12 months. You have to email support within 30 days of the closure announcement. Our guide on what happens if an AppSumo product shuts down covers this in full.
3. Old AppSumo gift cards. AppSumo’s gift card article (updated 22 May 2026) says it hasn’t sold gift cards “for a while,” but if you’ve still got one, redeeming it turns its value into credits on the Credits & gift cards page.
You may have seen people mention promotional credits from AppSumo emails. Honestly, we couldn’t trace a current AppSumo help page that describes them, so we’re not listing them as a route. If you’ve received credits from a promotion, the terms in that email are what apply.
Do AppSumo credits expire?
No. AppSumo’s credits article says, “the best part is, they never expire!” That’s unusual for store credit, and it’s the strongest point in their favour. You don’t have to rush a purchase just to use a balance.
Don’t confuse this with coupons. AppSumo’s coupons article says coupons “are available for a limited time only” and can’t be extended once they expire. A coupon is a one-time discount; a credit is a balance. They behave differently.
How to use credits at checkout
The credits article gives the steps:
- Check your balance on the Credits & gift cards page of your AppSumo account.
- Add your deal to the cart and go to checkout.
- If you have a balance, AppSumo credits are the first payment option you see. Click the toggle so the green check mark shows.
- If you’d rather keep your credits, click the toggle again so it shows an “x,” then pick or enter another payment method.
When your balance doesn’t cover the whole order, the article’s wording (“when partial credits are used”) shows you can use part of it with another method. But “customers are unable to choose how AppSumo credits are distributed throughout their transaction.” In other words, in a cart with several deals, you can’t decide which deal the credits pay for.
Turns out there are three places credits don’t go:
- Physical items. AppSumo “occasionally offers physical products like conference tickets, books, or other items that can only be purchased with cash,” and credits can’t be used on those.
- Other people. Credits “cannot be shared, sent to another person or transferred between accounts.” That includes a second AppSumo account of your own.
- Your bank. Not redeemable for cash, as above.
Credits and refunds: what comes back
When you refund a deal you paid for with credits, the Refund FAQ says the credits “are instantly returned to your AppSumo account upon refunding.” Card refunds, by comparison, take 5 to 10 business days to post at your bank.
One thing most people miss: the Terms say credits “may not be returned or redeemed for cash.” Read together with the FAQ, that means a refund of a credit-paid deal gives you credits back, not dollars. If you’ve used credits once, that value stays as credits.
The same goes in the other direction. If you choose credits when refunding a card payment, you’ve traded a cash refund for store credit, and you can’t change your mind after the refund goes through. When you’ve no plans to buy anything else on AppSumo, skip the credits option and take the original payment method.
The full refund rules, including windows and non-refundable deals, are in our AppSumo refund policy guide.
AppSumo credits vs the credits inside a tool
This trips people up. Many deals on AppSumo include their own credits, and those are a completely different thing.
AppSumo has a separate article, Understanding AI Credits on AppSumo, which calls them “usage tokens”: each time an AI feature runs, credits are spent. They live inside the vendor’s product, follow the vendor’s rules, and can’t be spent on the AppSumo store.
Our review data from 29 October 2026 shows how varied these are. FlexClip’s deal terms say only 20% of the credit limit is available during the refund window. Fuzen sells extra in-app credits at $15 per 100 on its listing, marked non-refundable. None of that touches your AppSumo credit balance.
A worked example
Here’s how a balance plays out, using real prices from our reviews (as shown on AppSumo on 29 October 2026) and a made-up refund.
Say you bought Formly’s Plan 2 for $198, decided inside the 60-day window that it wasn’t for you, and the refund screen offered AppSumo credits. You choose credits, so 198 credits land in your account at once, rather than $198 reaching your card in 5 to 10 business days.
Now you want a scheduling tool. TidyCal’s Agency Lifetime plan is $79 on AppSumo, so at checkout you leave the credits toggle on, and the whole $79 comes out of your balance. You’ve 119 credits left, with no deadline to spend them.
If you’d taken the card refund instead, you’d have $198 to spend anywhere. That’s the real trade. In practice, credits only make sense when you’re confident you’ll buy on AppSumo again.
Shutdown credit works on the same 1-to-1 scale, using the percentages on the guarantee page. Picture a $100 Select deal that closes eight months after you bought it, and you email support within 30 days of the announcement. Without Plus, you’d be eligible for 50 credits. With an active Plus membership on the closure date, it would be 100 credits. Either way, the cover arrives as credits, never as a card refund, because the refund window closed months earlier. Don’t forget that 30-day email deadline; the credit isn’t added automatically.
Common mistakes
Taking credits by reflex. They arrive faster, but they’re locked to AppSumo. If you’ve no next purchase in mind, the original payment is the safer choice.
Buying something just to use the balance. Credits don’t expire, so there’s no reason to rush. A deal you don’t need is still a waste, whatever paid for it.
Expecting to gift them. You can’t send credits to a colleague or merge them into a team account.
Missing the shutdown deadline. We Got Your Back credit depends on emailing support within 30 days of the closure announcement on the product page.
Mixing up AI credits and AppSumo credits. Running out of credits inside a tool says nothing about your AppSumo balance, and the other way round.
If something looks wrong
If your balance is missing after a refund, check the Refunded filter on your Products page to confirm the refund went through, then look at Credits & gift cards again. If a balance still looks wrong, or a shutdown credit hasn’t arrived, email support@appsumo.com with the order details. AppSumo Plus members get a bigger share of shutdown credit, which we weigh up in is AppSumo Plus worth it.
FAQ: AppSumo credits questions
How much is one AppSumo credit worth?
One US dollar. AppSumo’s credits article states the rate as “1 ASC = 1 USD,” so 50 credits pay for $50 of a deal at checkout.
Do AppSumo credits expire?
No. AppSumo says they never expire, so your balance stays in your account until you use it. Coupons are different and do expire.
Can I turn AppSumo credits into cash?
No. Both the Terms of Use and the credits article say credits can’t be redeemed for cash. They can only be spent on AppSumo purchases, and not on physical items like tickets or books.
Can I transfer AppSumo credits to another account?
No. AppSumo says credits “cannot be shared, sent to another person or transferred between accounts,” including other accounts you own.
The short version
- AppSumo credits are store credit at 1 credit to 1 US dollar, spendable only on AppSumo.
- You get them from refunds (where offered), the We Got Your Back shutdown guarantee, or old gift cards.
- They never expire, but they never become cash and can’t move to another account.
- Apply them with the toggle at checkout; physical items are excluded.
- They’re a store balance, not an investment, and they’re separate from the AI credits inside a tool.