---
title: "Why does my email campaign use more than one credit per recipient?"
description: "Understand how email campaign credits are calculated and lighten your message to use fewer."
url: https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/42-why-does-my-email-campaign-use-more-than-one-credit-per-recipient
collection: "Introduction"
updated: 2026-11-03
language: en
alternates: [fr, es]
---

# Why does my email campaign use more than one credit per recipient?

Understand how email campaign credits are calculated and lighten your message to use fewer.

An email campaign costs 1 credit per recipient for each 194 KB of message. Above 194 KB, each recipient costs 2 credits or more: for example, a 300 KB message sent to 150 contacts costs 300 credits. To reduce the cost, make your message lighter.

## Prerequisites

-   An email campaign being created in Sarbacane Campaigns, with a message.
    

## Steps

1.  At the checks step, read the total sending cost at the top right.
    
2.  Below the list of checks, on the right, click the link to view the summary.
    
3.  Look at the message weight and the sending cost per recipient, as well as image hosting and attachments.
    
4.  At the bottom of the window, click the close button.
    

## Expected result

You know the cost per recipient and the total cost before sending. If the cost per recipient is more than 1 credit, see Troubleshooting.

## Troubleshooting

### My images make the message heavier

> **Important**: an image embedded in the body of the message counts towards its weight. Host your images (up to 5 MB per campaign): they no longer count towards the weight. See [How to manage image hosting for my email campaign](https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/17.md).

### I added an attachment

An attachment adds to the weight of the message. Upload the file online instead and add a link to it in your email. See [How do I add an attachment to my campaign?](https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/18.md)

### My content is heavily formatted

A lot of formatting (colours, fonts, bold) makes the HTML code heavier. Simplify the formatting or shorten the message.

### I duplicated an old campaign

Duplicating builds up content in the text version. At the checks step, on the text version line, click the check button and delete the unnecessary text.

> **Best practice**: start from a template rather than duplicating a campaign.

## Related articles

-   [How do I create an email campaign in Sarbacane Campaigns?](https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/23.md)
    
-   [What is a sending credit in Sarbacane?](https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/298.md)
    
-   [Managing the text version of your campaigns](https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/44.md)