Bob,
two objects evaluated in the desktop frontend create objects in the cloud:

obj1 = CloudDeploy[APIFunction[{}, DateList[] &]]

obj2 = CloudDeploy[
  Manipulate[
   ContourPlot3D[
    x^2 + y^2 + a z^3 == 1, {x, -2, 2}, {y, -2, 2}, {z, -2, 2}, 
    Mesh -> None], {a, -2, 2}]]

Click on every resulting link once ,wait and don's pull the slider in the contourplot. Now check the Calls and credits used:

In[9]:= CloudLoggingData[CloudObject[obj1]]["TotalCalls"]

Out[9]= <|"LastHour" -> 1, "LastDay" -> 1, "LastWeek" -> 1, 
 "LastMonth" -> 1, "LastYear" -> 1, "All" -> 1|>

In[10]:= CloudLoggingData[CloudObject[obj1]]["TotalCreditsUsed"]

Out[10]= <|"LastHour" -> 1, "LastDay" -> 1, "LastWeek" -> 1, 
 "LastMonth" -> 1, "LastYear" -> 1, "All" -> 1|>

In[11]:= CloudLoggingData[CloudObject[obj2]]["TotalCalls"]

Out[11]= <|"LastHour" -> 13, "LastDay" -> 13, "LastWeek" -> 13, 
 "LastMonth" -> 13, "LastYear" -> 13, "All" -> 13|>

In[12]:= CloudLoggingData[CloudObject[obj2]]["TotalCreditsUsed"]

Out[12]= <|"LastHour" -> 15, "LastDay" -> 15, "LastWeek" -> 15, 
 "LastMonth" -> 15, "LastYear" -> 15, "All" -> 15|>

Deploying a object from the desktop does not use credits. Calling a object from the wolfram server involves the cloud kernel and uses up credits. One click on obj2 results in 13 calls. Now move the slider a few times from left to right. The kernel is involved .. its not only your browser doing the work... hope this helps!