Billing
Prepaid credits, pegged to the dollar. Every constraint here is stated before you pay.
- TermPegValue1,000 credits = $1WhyFixed. Provider price cuts make models cheaper in credits.
- TermDirect crypto minimumValue$5WhyOther providers may enforce a different minimum.
- TermPayment methodsValueAccount-specificWhyCheckout shows only methods reported available by the API.
- TermWithdrawalsValueNoneWhyCredits buy inference. There is no redemption path.
- TermExpiryValueNeverWhyExpiring credits is a dark pattern. Ours do not.
The peg
1,000 credits = $1, fixed. Provider price cuts make models cheaper in credits. Charges are metered in nano-USD, so a 500-token embedding does not round to zero, and every response reports its exact cost in usage.cost and the x-minirouter-cost-usd header.
Deposits only — no withdrawals, by design
There is no withdrawal endpoint — not disabled, absent. A service that pays money out is a money transmitter, which is what ends cheap and KYC-free. The $5 minimum exists because network fees eat anything smaller. Lose an accountless key and the balance goes with it, permanently.
Refunds — service credit, never cash
The remedy for our mistakes is service credit to your balance, never cash — there is no cash path out by design. Full policy, including wrong-chain deposit recovery: /legal/refunds.
Cards and chargebacks
When card checkout is configured, cards carry a 3.5% fee and a $20 minimum. Unconfigured card checkout is not shown as available. Card-funded credit is tracked separately: a chargeback posts a reversing ledger transaction — negative balance if already spent — and suspends the account pending resolution. First card deposits are velocity-capped; the cap rises with account age.
Running low
A balance below a request’s estimated cost gets a pre-request 402. x-minirouter-balance-usd is on every response. Accountless users can also opt into browser push or verified-email alerts. Where possible we clamp max_tokens to what the balance affords, run the request, and flag it x-minirouter-max-tokens-clamped: true. Your last $0.30 still works.