Lofty Chat vs. Lofty Cowork: Which should I use?

Both Chat and Cowork can answer questions and look up your CRM data — that's free and unlimited. What Cowork adds is the ability to do the work: send the approved messages, update records, run database-wide jobs, and generate finished reports and documents. Those task actions use AI credits, while pure conversation never does — even with zero credits remaining.

Both modes run on the same Lofty AI. You talk to them the same way, in plain English. The difference is what the AI can do with your request.

Use Lofty Chat when you want to think, ask, or draft

Chat is conversational and lightweight. It's the right fit when you want:

• Answers about Lofty itself — "How does lead routing work?" "Where do I set up a Smart Plan?" "What's included in my plan?"
• Brainstorming and strategy — "Help me script a follow-up cadence for new buyers" 
• Quick drafts — an email, a text, a social caption, a listing description you'll copy out yourself.

Chat doesn't open your records or files — it gives you the words, and you take it from there.

Use Lofty Cowork when you want the work done

Cowork is agentic: it can act inside your Lofty account and connected tools, then come back with the finished result. Reach for Cowork when your request means actually touching records, sending things, or producing files:

• Working on your real leads and records — "Find all my warm buyer leads I haven't contacted in 30 days," "Draft follow-ups for my three hottest leads."
• Sends and CRM changes — sending the approved email or text to a lead, moving leads to a new pipeline stage, enrolling leads in a Smart Plan, bulk-tagging a segment.
• Multi-step jobs across tools — "Check my calendar, prep a brief for my 2pm appointment, and email it to me," or "Pull this lead's full history and write a handoff packet for my teammate."
• Finished documents — a client-ready CMA as a PDF, a call list emailed to you each morning, a market report for a farm area.
• Scheduling and automations — recurring tasks, custom agents, and workflows that run on their own.

Quick comparison

How Cowork keeps you in control

Cowork never sends a message or changes a record on its own. Every action — an email to a lead, a stage change, a bulk update — is shown to you first as a confirmation card with the full details, and nothing happens until you approve it.

What's always free

Cowork's chat is your everyday workspace. Anything that's a conversation about your own data is free:

• Look things up — search leads, listings, contacts, transactions; view profiles and histories
• Read what's going on — messages, replies, call transcripts, notes
• Check your day — calendar, tasks, appointments, "what should I focus on?"
• Get answers — how Lofty works, what a feature does, how to approach something
• Get advice as you talk — think through a listing strategy, compare options, ask "who should I follow up with?"

Rule of thumb: if you're talking to Cowork — asking, reading, exploring, planning — it's free. No matter how long the conversation or how many questionsyou ask.

Power Prompts Use Credits

Credits kick in when you ask Cowork to run a task — not talk about one. That includes:

• Dedicated Cowork tools: Compose Messages, Prep Meeting, Plan My Day, Performance Report, Create Skills, Create PPT, Process PDF, Deal Spreadsheet, Generate Doc
• Database-wide work: ask Cowork to review, clean, tag, or export an entire database / large segment — credit cost scales with how many leads are processed
• Custom Agent runs: every time a custom agent runs (on schedule, on a trigger, or on demand) consumes credits
• Smart Plan creation through the AI builder ♦ — confirm how building meters
• AI Sales Agent activity on leads ♦ — confirm whether this bills as credits or rides on plan seats

Rule of thumb: if Cowork is doing something — generating, processing, automating — it draws credits. The bigger the job, the more credits.

How to tell the difference at a glance

The one gray zone: drafting. Talking your way to a message draft in conversation is free; the one-click polished generators (Compose Messages) are tools — confirm which side of the line each sits on before you publish, since that's the page's central claim ♦.

Where to see your usage

Billing Center → Manage Credits shows your AI runs, credits used per conversation, and the token-to-credit ratio. You can see a full walkthrough of the Credits in Billing Center here: Viewing and Managing Cowork Credits in Lofty AOS

FAQ

• I ran low on credits — can I still chat? Yes, free chat is always free and unlimited
• Do Custom Agents use my credits? Yes — each run is metered and tracked separately by agent
• Why did that one chat cost me credits? A tool ran, a custom agent fired, or a large database job was requested — check Billing Center → Manage Credits for the breakdown
• Is there a limit on free chat? No — it's unlimited

Questions?

If you have any questions regarding this topic or any others, please reach out to our Support Team via email at support@lofty.com, by phone at 1 (855) 981-7557, or by chat with us through your Lofty CRM.