This topic helps you find how to perform common billing tasks, outlines how Labelbox handles billing, and points you to more information.

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Common billing tasks

View account details

View account usage

to review LBU usage for the current billing period.

Manage billing details

Add payment method

Remove payment method

Change billing contact details

Review invoices and payments

Update account plan

Upgrade account plan

Downgrade account plan

Cancel account plan

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Labelbox units (LBUs)

A Labelbox Unit (LBU) is a normalized unit of data in the Labelbox platform. Each LBU represents work performed using one or more data rows. Each Labelbox product (Catalog, Annotate, and Model) performs different tasks. Catalog LBUs are charged each month while Annotate and Model are one-time charges. As a result, LBU charges vary according to the product, the amount and type of data processed, and what you do with it:
Data row asset typeCatalog (monthly)Annotate (one-time)Model (one-time)
Image1 LBU per 60 data rows1 LBU per data row1 LBU per 5 data rows
Text1 LBU per 60 data rows1 LBU per data row1 LBU per 5 data rows
Chat (Conversation)1 LBU per 60 data rows1 LBU per data row1 LBU per 5 data rows
Audio1 LBU per 60 data rows1 LBU per data row1 LBU per 5 data rows
Document (PDF), per page1 LBU per 60 data rows + 1 LBU per 60 pages1 LBU per page1 LBU per 5 pages
Video1 LBU per 60 data rows + 1 LBU per 5,000 frames1 LBU per data row + 1 LBU per 150 frames1 LBU per 5 data rows + 1 LBU per 1,500 frames
Geospatial & Medical Tiled Imagery1 LBU per 6 data rows4 LBU per data row1 LBU per data row
Multi Modal/LLM1 LBU per 60 data rows20 LBU per data row1 LBU per 5 data rows

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Skipped data rows

For Annotate projects, skipped data rows are considered labeled and contribute to LBU.
Free accounts have 500 free LBU credits each month. If you reach this limit, you can access and export your data. However, you cannot add data rows, labels, or predictions until the next billing period. (You can upgrade your account at any time.)

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LBU consumption

Different actions within Labelbox consume LBUs. Here’s how consumption works for each Labelbox product

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Catalog consumption

In Catalog, LBUs are consumed when you upload data into Catalog, regardless of the data type. To safeguard against unintended uploads, there is a seven (7) day grace period when you first upload data. If, during that time, you remove unused data rows before the grace period expires, no LBUs are consumed. However, if you perform an action that adds labels to a data row, the row consumes LBUs, even within the grace period. Once the grace period expires, data rows consume LBUs. After the grace period, Catalog LBU consumption applies to the entire billing period. While you can delete data rows at any time, LBU consumption is not updated until the next billing period. To illustrate, suppose you upload 600 images to a dataset:
  • For the first seven days after the initial upload, no LBUs are consumed. You can delete as many rows as you like.
  • If you label 60 rows within the grace period, those rows consume 1 LBU for the current billing period, even if you delete them after labeling them.
  • Once the grace period expires, the remaining 540 data rows consume 9 LBUs in the current billing period.
  • If you delete 300 rows after the grace period, you are charged 10 Catalog LBUs in the current billing period. In the next billing period, Catalog LBU consumption drops to 5 LBU to reflect the remaining data row count.
Remember, each product consumes LBUs. If you used Annotate to label the initial 60 rows in the previous example, this would have consumed 60 LBUs. To learn more, see the next section.

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Annotate consumption

In Annotate, LBUs are consumed when:
  • Labels are submitted to a project.
Annotate LBUs are one-time charges. Videos consume LBUs individually as a unit; that is, they consume the same LBUs regardless of the number of labeled frames. If any frame in the video is labeled, the entire video is charged once. if additional frames in the video are labeled later, no further LBUs are consumed.

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Model consumption

In Model, LBUs are consumed when you:
  • Add data rows to a model run.
  • Use Foundry to create and submit model predictions.
  • Use data rows for model-assisted labeling (MAL), either through the app or the SDK.
Model LBUs are one-time charges for each data row. Additional Model uses of a given data row do not consume additional LBU. New data rows can consume additional Model LBUs. Be aware that Foundry may incur additional inference costs based on the number of rows processed, the complexity of the task, the model used, and other factors. To learn more, see Add-on charges.

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LBU examples

The following examples illustrate LBU consumption for common workflows.

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Data labeling using model-assisted pre-labels

Imagine you need to label 1,000 images and that half of your images have pre-labels generated by Foundry. In this scenario, you would be charged as follows:
  • Catalog: 17 LBU per month for 1,000 data rows (200 LBU annually)
  • Model: 100 LBU for predictions on 500 data rows, charged once
  • Annotate: 1,000 LBU for 1,000 labeled data rows, charged once
If this activity occurred within a single billing period, you would be charged 1,117 LBU once and 1.67 LBU each month the data rows remain in Catalog.

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Data curation and labeling with enrichment

Imagine you have 60,000 images with Foundry predictions and that 10,000 of these images are labeled:
  • Catalog: 1,000 LBU per month for 60,000 data rows (or 12,000 LBU annually)
  • Model: 12,000 LBU for 60,000 data rows with a prediction, charged once
  • Annotate: 10,000 LBU for 10,000 labeled data rows, charged once
If this activity occurred within the same billing period, you would be charged 23,000 LBU once and 1,000 LBU each month the data remains in Catalog. To learn more, see:

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Add-on charges

Your account may also be billed for add-on services. These charges are billed separately from your subscriptions and may require that you add a credit card to your account. (Specific requirements vary according to your subscription and the add-on.) Available add-ons include:
  • Foundry, which uses foundational models to predict labels and enrich data, incurs inference costs. When you perform a model run, a fee is charged based on the amount of data involved, the model used, the complexity of the inference task, and other factors. To use Foundry, you need to accept these charges and have a valid payment method associated with your account. To learn more, see Foundry billing.
  • Labeling services connect you with labelers with specialized knowledge to annotate and review large amounts of data for you. For Enterprise accounts, the service is included in your plan and fully managed. For Starter and Free accounts, you hire your team a week at a time per project. Each week is billed and paid separately from your subscription.
  • Sign sign on (SSO) lets Enterprise teams use their single sign-on service to sign in to Labelbox.
  • HIPAA helps Enterprise subscribers comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and related regulations.
Enterprise customers should contact their technical account manager to verify terms, payment, and other details for their add-ons. To learn more about available add-ons, see Plans and pricing.