> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mentioned.com.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Scan Cadence and Credits

> Understand how often Mentioned measures your tracked prompts, and what each project costs your plan.

**Cadence** is how often Mentioned measures the prompts in a project. Cadence is one setting for the whole project, and it applies to every prompt in that project.

**Credits** are the unit that measures how much scanning your plan uses. Your Cadence and your engines together set how many credits a project uses.

## The three cadences

| Cadence       | How often Mentioned measures each prompt |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| **Daily**     | Every 24 hours                           |
| **3x a week** | Every 56 hours, about three times a week |
| **Weekly**    | Every 7 days                             |

A Cadence is an interval, not a calendar rule. It counts forward from the time a prompt last ran. **3x a week** therefore repeats at the same three times each week, and you do not choose the days.

## Change a project's Cadence

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the prompts screen">
    Open **Settings** and select the **Prompts** tab.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Find the project banner">
    Each project has a banner with its name, its engines and its credits.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose a Cadence">
    Select **Daily**, **3x a week** or **Weekly** in the banner. The credit figures update as you choose.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save your changes">
    Save the plan. The new Cadence applies from the next scheduled measurement.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Mentioned enables the Cadence choice one project at a time. A project without the choice runs Daily.
</Note>

## Cadence does not change your metrics

Every prompt has equal influence on your metrics, whatever its Cadence. Mentioned scores a rolling sample of recent answers rather than one scan. A Weekly prompt therefore stays in that sample between its runs.

Cadence changes two things: how fresh your data is, and how many credits your plan uses. It does not change which prompts count towards a metric.

A slower Cadence collects fewer answers over the same period. Your metrics then rest on a smaller sample, so single answers move them more.

## What uses credits

The **Prompts** screen shows the credit cost of each prompt, each topic and each project over a full billing period. Two things set that cost:

* **The Cadence.** A Daily prompt runs more often than a Weekly prompt, so it uses more credits.
* **The engines.** Each engine that a prompt runs on adds to the cost of that prompt.

A failed measurement uses no credits. Mentioned counts a usable answer, or a valid empty result, and nothing else. A valid empty result is evidence: it shows that the engine answered and did not name your brand.

## Tracked prompts

The **Prompts** screen is read only for your prompt list today. You can see every tracked prompt, the topic it belongs to, and what it costs. Contact Mentioned to change which prompts a project tracks.

Your plan sets how many prompts one project can track.

<Note>
  A change to your Cadence changes how often Mentioned measures, not what Mentioned measures. To compare two periods fairly, check that both use the same prompts, engines and competitors.
</Note>