Hey everyone. Recently, the organization through which my group gets access to ArcGIS Online has transitioned from unlimited credits to credit rationing. Our primary use of this system is for Field Maps. I'd like to reduce or entirely eliminate our credit usage if possible, but I'm not exactly sure which actions use credits and which don't.
Here's a reference site: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/administer/credits.htm
On this site, it says that web maps use credits. That's what we use in Field Maps: I create maps in ArcGIS Online and share them as web maps, and we access those web maps through the Field Maps application.
However, when testing this today, I was able to create and share a web map without requiring / consuming credits. The web map had around a dozen empty feature classes (for collecting data) and a few feature classes that already had data (a point layer with sites to check, a polygon layer with property parcel information, etc.) and it used the ESRI "terrain with labels" as the basemap. The empty feature classes allow photo attachments, which, according to the link above, also consume credits.
I ran a test by creating an offline area through the Field Maps application (rather than in ArcGIS Online), creating a "fake" test point somewhere in the offline map, adding a photo to that point, submitting the point, then syncing my offline map with the "master" web map in ArcGIS Online. It succeeded, yet this entire time I've used zero credits. I'm almost certain this is correct, because throughout this entire process my account has had zero credits, and it's still at zero credits.
So, what's the deal? The official link above very clearly says that web maps and feature class attachments consume credits. Yet in my testing, I was able to create and share a web map, add data to feature layers in that web map (and here I'm not sure if they treat the feature layers in a web map separately from the web map itself), and add attachments (photos) to data points in those feature layers, all - presumably - without consuming credits.
Does ArcGIS Online run a "credit check" on a schedule and simply hasn't noticed that I've performed actions that require credits? Or do these actions actually not consume credits? If they do, and ArcGIS Online determines after-the-fact that credits were required but not available, what happens to the data?
I apologize if my terminology isn't as precise or clear as it could be. I'm happy to clarify where I can. Thanks in advance for any help. I'll take anything I can get!