# What is the difference between insetting and offsetting?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/insetting-vs-offsetting-difference

Insetting means funding reductions inside your own value chain, such as helping a supplier switch fuel; they show up as lower Scope 3 when the supplier's data changes. Offsetting means buying credits from outside it, reported separately and never subtracted from your inventory.

## Insetting

- Counts only through measured lower emissions in your supplier data.
- Paying for a project does not by itself change your figures.

## Offsetting

- Credits are retired and reported alongside, not deducted.
- Check the credit's quality, for example against ICVCM principles.

## Wording

Insetting is not a GHG Protocol term. Describe what you funded and what changed in the data.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads bills, fuel invoices and production records into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its documents.

- [Can offsets be subtracted](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-a-ghg-report-subtract-carbon-offsets)
- [Credits and SBTi targets](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-carbon-credits-count-toward-sbti-target)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market](https://icvcm.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.