First-round screening on real candidates: 5 unlimited essential tests, 180+ more skills tests, 10 credits a month, and no expiration.
You're on the Free forever plan. You get 5 essential skills tests with unlimited use (Problem Solving, Big 5 (OCEAN), Time Management, Communication, and Motivation), 180+ more skills tests that use 1 credit per candidate, 10 credits per month, resume scoring on every applicant, and the ability to build your own AI interviews. This guide walks through how credits work, what's included, what you can build, and when to upgrade.
Approx. reading time: 5 minutes
Your Free forever plan includes 10 credits per month. Credits renew on the 1st of each month and do not roll over. Credits are consumed when a candidate starts an assessment. Inviting candidates costs nothing. An assessment made only of the 5 essential skills tests (with or without resume scoring, qualifying questions and custom questions) costs 0 credits and never touches your monthly allocation.
| Component | Credits per candidate |
|---|---|
| Skills tests: the 5 essentials | 0 credits, unlimited use |
| Skills tests: 180+ other included tests | 1 credit (one credit covers every skills test in the assessment) |
| Video questions | 1 credit |
| AI lnterview | 2 credits |
| Resume scoring | 0 credits |
| Qualifying & Custom questions | 0 credits |
➡️ Learn more: Guide to credits
Resume scoring evaluates each candidate's resume against criteria you set and assigns 0–5 scores per criterion. On the Free forever plan, resume scoring runs on every applicant for free. No credits used.
➡️ Learn more: Introducing resume scoring
The Free forever plan includes access to 5 specific custom questions that are categorized into 4 essay questions and one file upload question. They are not editable as this feature is only available on Core and Plus. The custom question feature consumes no credit. The questions available on the Free forever plan are:
- File upload: "Please feel welcome to upload your resume/CV or portfolio (if you have one)."
- Essay: "Please provide a link to your LinkedIn profile."
- Essay: "What metrics do you track on a regular basis, and how do you use the information to adjust your approach?"
- Essay: "Describe a time when you identified a personal weakness at work and took steps to improve it."
- Essay: "Describe a time when you worked collaboratively as part of a team to achieve a common goal at work."
Free includes 5 essential skills tests: Problem Solving, Big 5 (OCEAN), Time Management, Communication, and Motivation. They cost 0 credits, and you can invite as many candidates as you like. They carry an Unlimited badge (gift icon) in the test library and are pinned at the top of the recommendations in Step 3 under "Unlimited on your plan". On the Free forever plan, Problem Solving, Communication and Time Management are limited versions with a smaller set of questions. Big 5 (OCEAN) and Motivation are the same tests on every plan.
Your library also includes 180+ more skills tests, badged 1 credit. Each uses 1 of your 10 monthly credits per candidate. One credit covers every skills test in an assessment, so adding a second or third included test to the same assessment costs nothing extra. These are limited versions of our premium tests, with a smaller, fixed set of questions.
Tests badged Upgrade (diamond) are premium tests available on Core and Plus. Paid plans get the full question bank, regularly updated items, and video, audio and AI-scored formats across the whole library.
| Badge in the library | What it means on Free |
|---|---|
| Unlimited (gift icon) | One of the 5 essentials. 0 credits, invite as many candidates as you like. |
| 1 credit | One of the 180+ included tests. Uses 1 credit per candidate from your monthly allocation. Limited question set. |
| Upgrade (diamond) | Premium test. Available on Core and Plus. |
Resume scoring evaluates each candidate's resume against criteria you set and assigns 0–5 scores per criterion. On the Free forever plan, resume scoring runs on every applicant for free. No credits used.
Candidates record asynchronous responses. (1 credit).
Real-time exchange with an AI interviewer. (2 credits).
Free users can write their own questions. Build video questions (up to 5 questions) or a single AI interview (up to 8 questions). Anything you build saves to your team library forever.
➡️ Learn more: Introducing AI interviews
- Single user. The Free forever plan supports one premium user (the account owner). Team seats are available on Core and Plus.
- Single-domain eligibility. Version 1 of our new Free forever plan is rolling out to accounts that have only one premium user, provided their email domain isn't shared with any other TestGorilla accounts.
- Custom branding. Your own logo and colors are available on Plus.
- ATS integrations and API access. Available on Plus.
- ID Verification. Available on Plus.
- The full premium test library (complete question banks, regularly updated items, and video, audio and AI-scored formats), Sourcing, and bulk invitations.
- Science-backed library rubrics for AI Video.
- Custom branding, ATS integrations, and ID Verification.
Is this a free trial? ▼
What happens when I run out of credits? ▼
Why do I see "1 credit" on a free test? ▼
Is the free Communication test the same as the paid one? ▼
Do my existing assessments change? ▼
How can I try features that aren't on Free? ▼
If you are on the Free Forever plan and eligible for free credits, you can preview assessments.
No credits used: The system recognizes you as an internal user, so your balance remains unaffected.
Premium restriction: If free credits are unavailable in your account (meaning you are ineligible), you will not be able to preview premium assessments.
Why can free users build their own AI interviews when Core users can't? ▼
In contrast, custom user-created interviews rely entirely on AI-generated scoring without human validation. Free users can build their own questions to test the technology, but they do not get access to our scientifically backed, ready-to-use library.