# Premium and EC Credits

> What premium includes, what it costs, and how EC Credits are earned and spent.

Source: https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/premium/premium-membership
Last updated: 2026-07-30

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Entropia Central is free to use. Everything public stays public: the wiki, globals, leaderboards, profiles, events and the API need no subscription and never will.

Premium removes advertising and unlocks the extras that cost us money to run.

There are two ways to have it. You can **buy it**, which is what the rest of this page is about, or you can **earn it** by contributing: running the tracker, or keeping the wiki up to date. That is covered in [earning premium](https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/premium/earning-premium).

## What premium includes

**No advertising.** Ads are the one place a third party is involved on this site, and premium removes them entirely. Both tiers get this.

**The AI assistant.** A conversational way to query our data and to ask how the site works, covered in [the assistant](https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/premium/the-assistant). Paid premium allows 25 messages a day; earned premium allows 5, because each message costs us money to answer.

**Placing advertisements.** Paid premium only.

## Plans

| Plan | PED | EC Credits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 3 months | 100 | 1,000 |
| 12 months | 250 | 2,500 |

The two currencies are equivalent, since 1 PED converts to 10 EC Credits. Paying in either costs the same; the choice is only about which you happen to have.

The yearly plan works out considerably cheaper per month than the quarterly one.

Premium runs for the period you bought, and it does not renew itself. Nothing recurs and there is nothing to cancel, which is deliberate: an account that lapses simply goes back to the free tier.

Buying premium while you hold earned premium does not waste either one. They run on separate clocks, the paid one applies while it lasts, and the earned coverage takes over afterwards with its remaining time intact.

## EC Credits

EC Credits are the site's own currency. They can be converted from PED at **10 EC Credits per 1 PED**, and they are also earned by taking part.

### Earning them

| How | EC Credits |
| --- | --- |
| Submitting a global first | 10 |
| Confirming a global somebody else already submitted | 10 |
| Placing in events and completing challenges | Set by the organiser |

Submitting and confirming are worth the same, so running the tracker in a busy area earns steadily whether or not you are the first to report anything. The reasoning is in [how globals are tracked](https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/globals/how-globals-are-tracked#what-you-earn-for-submitting).

### Spending them

EC Credits pay for premium, and organisers can use them as event and challenge rewards, which is how credits move between players rather than only accumulating.

## Rewards from events

An event or challenge organiser chooses whether rewards are paid in EC Credits or handled manually.

**EC Credit rewards are credited automatically** when the event completes. **Manual rewards are settled by the organiser in game**, and Entropia Central never moves PED. Our payout ledger records what is owed and what has been settled, and nothing more. See [running your event](https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/events/running-your-event#payouts).

If you win something before your avatar is linked to an account, the reward is held and credited when you claim the avatar. See [creating an account](https://www.entropiacentral.com/documentation/account/creating-an-account#what-happens-to-your-avatar-name).

## Supporting the site without subscribing

Contributions are welcome and separate from premium. The contribute page covers the ways to help, including running the tracker, which costs nothing and is genuinely the most useful thing most people can do: every global you report improves the record for everybody.