Caffeine forum thread: failed AI requests cost a user 50 credits

On 2026-11-03, a Caffeine user posted on the DFINITY developer forum that their AI requests, sent one task at a time, still hang and fail about an hour later, leaving them 50 credits down. Builders using Caffeine for larger apps should split work into small prompts, check Credit usage after every failed run, and send support exact timestamps.

The thread is titled "Slow support for Caffeine problems" and sits in the forum's Showcase category. It is one user's report, not an incident notice from Caffeine. Still, it describes a failure pattern that anyone paying for AI builds should know how to check.

What the user reported

The original post by koffeekingkanada describes two problems in a row:

• Overloaded prompts. At first the user gave Caffeine a large amount of information in a single request. They say this burned credits without producing anything. Support then told them to cut back and "just do a bit at a time".
• Hanging single-task prompts. The user now sends one task per prompt. When the AI cannot solve a task, the user says it hangs. About an hour later they are 50 credits poorer and get a message that the request could not be completed.
• Slow refunds. Each time, the user emails support and waits two or three days to learn why the request failed and to get the credits back.
• The goal. The user is trying to build a complex application they call Sovereign Civic Systems. They write that at this rate it will take years.

Five more posts followed on 2026-11-03 and 2026-11-04. One reply, from Henn91, suggests downloading the Caffeine project and fixing it with OpenCode and DeepSeek. The same member wrote that Caffeine cannot handle complex apps, that its limitations break it, and that it costs too much. The remaining replies are jokes about vague prompts. As of 2026-11-04, no Caffeine or DFINITY staff member has replied in the thread.

Who is affected and why it matters

The report matters to anyone who builds multi-feature apps in Caffeine with paid credits. It does not match Caffeine's own credit rules.

Caffeine's help center article "Understanding Credits" says:

• Successful builds and deployments use credits. Failed builds do not.
• An AI build costs 2 credits, charged only after the AI generates and compiles the app. If the build fails before completion, including on a compile error, no credits are charged.
• Going live costs 4 credits, charged when deployment starts, whether or not the deployment succeeds.
• Creating a draft, deploying to draft and cloning a project cost nothing.
• The full transaction history is under Profile avatar → Credit usage.

Under those rules, a request that ends in a failure message should cost nothing. A 50-credit charge is far above the listed price of 2 credits for a successful build. The thread does not say what caused the charge. Several explanations are possible: actions other than a build, billing that has changed since the article was written, or a charge that support later reverses. The user's own account fits the last one: support eventually returns the credits, but only after two or three days.

The delay matters as well. A request that hangs for about an hour before failing blocks the project. If each refund takes days, a builder working one task at a time can lose a week on a few failed steps.

What to do now

If you build with Caffeine and see charges after failed requests, collect evidence before you contact support. These steps use only the features described in the credits article.

1. Write down your balance from the top bar before you send a large or risky prompt.
2. Send one feature per prompt. This is what support told the user to do, and it keeps a failed run small.
3. Record the start time of any request that runs for a long time without output. Also record when the failure message appears and copy its exact text.
4. Open Profile avatar → Credit usage after the failure and find the matching transaction.
5. Compare the charge with the table below. A failed build should show no charge.
6. Email support with the details: project name, start and failure times, the transaction lines and the error text. This helps support match your claim to their logs.
7. Plan around the wait. In this report refunds took two or three days, so keep your balance high enough to continue working, or work on another part of the app while you wait.
8. Keep a way out for complex apps. One reply suggests downloading the project and continuing with other coding tools. This is a community idea, not a workflow Caffeine documents.

If a failed request shows a charge that does not fit this table, say so in your support email and cite the article. That gives support one clear question to answer instead of a general complaint.

Caveats

The 50-credit figure, the one-hour hang and the two-to-three-day support delay all come from a single user's post. Caffeine has not confirmed them, and the thread has no official reply yet. Caffeine's help center pages on plans and credits have changed over time, so check the current "Understanding Credits" article before you rely on the costs in the table.