What are ACUs? Construction lead credits, explained

Most lead platforms charge tradespeople a monthly subscription whether the leads are any good or not, or take a commission from every job. AxionOS does neither. Instead, trades hold a balance of ACUs — AxionOS Credit Units — at a fixed rate of £1 = 100 ACU, everywhere, always — and spend them only when they choose to unlock a specific lead.

What a credit actually buys

Every lead on the grid is a verified piece of demand — a real job, planning application, new-owner renovation signal or retrofit opportunity — matched to your selected trades and shown only if it sits within your operating radius. You can see what the work is, where it is (to area level) and how it's graded before spending anything.

Unlocking is what costs credits: it opens the full brief — the exact address, the decision-maker or route to them, and the right to quote. In other words, you never pay for a list of cold contacts; you pay for access to one job you've already decided you want.

What things cost

Unlock prices scale with the size of the work, so a handyman job never costs what a commercial contract does:

• Preview a lead — 30 ACU (£0.30): a closer look before committing to the full unlock
• Handyman-band unlock — 50 ACU (£0.50)
• Residential-band unlock — 320 ACU (£3.20)
• Commercial-band unlock — 1,200 ACU (£12)
• Enterprise-band unlock — 4,500 ACU (£45)

A few power tools are also metered in credits — AI-drafted outreach (40 ACU to generate, 70 to send) and the AI assistants (40 ACU per run). Freshly approved planning permissions carry a premium over their pre-approval price, because the owner has consent and works typically start within months.

Some leads also have a limited number of unlocks — once a lead fills up, it closes. Being early matters, which is why match alerts arrive the moment a lead lands.

Topping up

You buy credits in packages, and the rate improves with size:

• Starter — £10 → 1,000 ACU (the base rate)
• Growth — £25 → 3,000 ACU (+20% bonus)
• Pro — £50 → 6,500 ACU (+30% bonus)
• Scale — £100 → 14,000 ACU (+40% bonus)

Payment is by card through Stripe, and every top-up and spend is itemised in your wallet ledger — you can always see exactly where each credit went.

Why this model is fair

1. No subscription. A quiet month costs you nothing.
2. No commission. Win a £40,000 extension from a £3.20 unlock and every penny of the job is yours.
3. You choose every spend. Credits only move when you click unlock — on a lead you've already seen matched to your trade, in your area.
4. The risk is priced honestly. A contactless canvass signal (like a planning application) is priced far below a job with a reachable decision-maker — you can see which is which before you unlock.

Spending them well

• Set your targeting first — your trades, work categories and service radius decide what reaches your marketplace at all.
• Use the grade and win-chance signals — they exist to stop you unlocking leads you're unlikely to convert.
• Move fast on matches — capped unlocks reward the first movers.
• Let the escrow badge work for you — quoting through AxionOS means the client funds milestones into escrow, so the jobs you win this way come with guaranteed, staged payment.

That's the whole model: verified demand in, one honest price per unlock, and the job's value stays with the person who does the work.