Processing credits

To access or manage users' time in the system, Mozenda uses processing credits. Processing credits allow users to access harvesting servers to build and run agents. You're allocated a certain number based on your subscription.

What's a processing credit?
Processing credits measure how much of Mozenda's computing resources (processing power and/or storage) are used for various customer activities like:

• Page navigation or content loading (whenever you load a page into the browser).
• Premium harvesting.
• Image or file downloads.

Different activities use different amounts of resources. Premium harvesting, for example, uses processing credits at a higher rate than normal processing.

You can see how processing credits you've used in your account’s billing summary.

Usage limits

• Processing credits can't be refunded or transferred to another account.
• Processing credits can only be used on active accounts.
• Unused processing credits associated with a subscription roll over to subsequent months.
• If you close your account, you also lose any unused processing credits.

Browsing web pages
You use one or more processing credits every time you load a web page—or portion of a web page—into the agent browser during an active job. This might be visible content loaded by the browser, or simply source code visible only in the HTML.

Any agent action that interacts with a target web page like clicking on a link, entering text into a text box, or scrolling the page to load more items can use more processing credits.

Getting redirected
There are several reasons why clicking a link or loading a new page can use more processing credits than expected. A common cause is a website redirecting (also known as multiple navigations) to another site. This happens when the agent browser is directed through several URLs before arriving at the target web page. Many websites use third-party web analytics, causing users to be directed to a blank page that sends data regarding the user’s visit before being directed to the actual web page requested. This is controlled by the owner and developers of the target website and cannot be prevented by Mozenda.

Downloading images or files
If an agent collects image or file URLs, and the field format for those capture actions is File the agent downloads those images or files to the Web Console. For each image download, 2 processing credits are expended; for each file download, 4 processing credits are expended.

Examples
The following examples approximate how many processing a few sample agents would use (These are only estimates).

Example 1: High-Volume Project
Collecting product information from an auto parts website that uses multiple drop-down lists.

• Load the search page to search for an auto part.
  Page load = 1 processing credit
• Choose a make (Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, etc.) from the drop-down list.
  Select option = 0 processing credits
• Website loads new options into the model menu.
  Page load = 1 processing credit
• Select search button.
  Select item = 0 processing credits
• Load search results page.
  Page load = 1 processing credit
• Select and load each result for part details and prices.
  Page load = 1 processing credit per result

Assuming there were 100 results (parts) for each model: 50 models for each make and 20 makes:

1 search + ( 20 makes × 50 models × 100 results ) = 100,001 processing credits

Example 2: File and image downloads
Collect product images from an online retailer website.

• Open the web page where a list of tablet computers appears.
  Page load = 1 processing credit

• Select each product to open the product details web page.
  Page load = 1 processing credit per product page

• Download product image and save to the Web Console.
  Image download = 2 processing credits

• Select Next Page button to load the next page of products.
  Loading a page = 1 processing credit per page

Assume the agent navigates through the first 5 pages of the product list, that the website shows 20 products per page, and that there is only one image per product details page.

10 list pages + 200 total products + 200 total images × 2 (image download rate) = 610 processing credits