# How it fits together Four things, and it helps to keep them apart. ## The four things You use Models ### Chat The conversation. It belongs to you. one model at a time, changeable Hardware ### Container A real Linux machine, independent of any chat. You can attach the same container to several chats. its files persist You pay Models ### Credit Prepaid money for model usage. Separate from the plan, though every paid plan adds some each month (see [Plans](https://zerolog.ch/docs/plans) and [Credit](https://zerolog.ch/docs/credit)). paid per request Hardware ### Plan What hardware you may use. - cores - memory and disk - how many containers run at once - how long an agent may run - how many public ports ## The important consequence Plan Model usage A plan does not pay for model usage. It only adds some credit each month. Credit Hardware Credit does not buy hardware. They are two meters because they are two different costs. ## What survives closing the tab *Keeps running* - A chat, an agent or a [/goal](https://zerolog.ch/docs/goal) run once you have sent it - A [terminal](https://zerolog.ch/docs/terminal) session you can reattach to later - A [container](https://zerolog.ch/docs/containers)'s files, across restarts *Needs your action* - Stopping a run: the stop button or an explicit abort - Nothing stops it just because the tab closed or the page reloaded See [Isolation](https://zerolog.ch/docs/isolation) for what else does and does not change about a workspace. ## Chat, container, plan and credit Mermaid source of the diagram on this page: ```mermaid %% How chat, container, plan and credit relate. Facts from server/tiers.js (hardware per plan), server/plans.js (monthly credit grant, 3 month expiry), web kontext-leiste.tsx (Link a workspace). flowchart LR plan["Plan
sets the hardware"] chat["Chat
one model at a time"] credit["Credit
prepaid, for models"] box["Container
a Linux machine,
files persist"] req["Model request
paid per request"] plan -->|"cores, memory, disk,
run length, ports"| box chat -->|"attach; one container
can serve several chats"| box chat -->|"each answer"| req credit -->|"pays"| req plan -->|"adds some credit
each month"| credit linkStyle 3 stroke:#8f7ac9 ```