What are Data Cloud Credits and how is consumption calculated?

Data Cloud Credits are the consumption-based currency used to price Data Cloud usage. Credit consumption is driven by several activities:

1. Data Ingestion — credits consumed per record ingested via Data Streams (different rates for real-time vs. batch).
2. Identity Resolution — credits consumed per IR ruleset run, based on the number of records processed.
3. Segmentation Refresh — each segment refresh consumes credits based on DMO size and complexity.
4. Activation — credits consumed per record activated to an external target.
5. Profile API Calls — each real-time profile lookup consumes a small credit amount. Organizations purchase Credit packs and monitor consumption via the Data Cloud Usage dashboard. Optimizing segment refresh frequency, minimizing unnecessary activations, and managing data retention policies are key strategies to control credit consumption.