# Credits and billing

> Buying credits, fees, and how request costs are reported.

Clonvo is prepaid. Your organization buys credits (US dollars), and each request that runs on Clonvo’s provider accounts is deducted from the balance at the model’s list price.

## Buying credits

Open **Credits** in the dashboard. You need to be an owner or admin of the organization.

New organizations are on the [Free plan](https://clonvo.com/docs/plans.md), which only allows free models. Your first purchase, of any amount, moves the organization to Pay as you go and unlocks every model.

| Limit | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Minimum purchase | $5 |
| Maximum purchase | $10,000 |
| Purchase fee on Pay as you go | 5.5% of the amount, minimum $0.80 |
| Purchase fee on Enterprise | Agreed with your organization |

For example, on Pay as you go buying $10 of credits costs $10.80 (the minimum fee applies), and buying $100 costs $105.50. A first purchase on Free is priced on Pay as you go terms. Sales tax, where it applies, is added at checkout. See the [pricing page](https://clonvo.com/pricing.md) for more examples.

### Why there’s a fee

Tokens cost each provider’s list price, with no markup. The purchase fee covers what it costs to take your payment: our merchant of record, Dodo Payments, processes the card, collects and remits sales tax and VAT, and handles refunds and disputes. They charge a percentage plus a fixed amount on every payment, more for international cards, and most of the fee goes to that.

### Paying in your local currency

Prices and credits are in US dollars. At checkout you can pay in your local currency where Dodo Payments supports it, for example INR with UPI in India, or EUR and GBP. Dodo converts the price at the live exchange rate and adds a conversion fee of up to 4%, shown before you pay. You receive the same credits either way.

Credits belong to the organization and are shared by all its projects and API keys.

Credit purchases, including unused balances, and consumed tokens are non-refundable except where required by law or where Dodo Payments approves a refund under its applicable buyer terms. Credits currently have no scheduled expiry. See the [Terms](https://clonvo.com/terms.md#refunds) for payment issues, cancellation and refund exceptions.

## What requests cost

Each request costs the provider’s list price for the tokens it used, with no markup. Prices are listed per 1M tokens on each [model page](https://clonvo.com/models.md), including cache, prompt-length tier and peak-hour prices where the provider has them.

A few models, such as DeepSeek’s, cost more during the provider’s peak hours. Their model pages show both prices and the hours, and `GET /v1/models` lists them under [`pricing.overrides`](https://clonvo.com/docs/other-endpoints.md#peak-hour-prices). A request is charged the price in effect when it reaches Clonvo.

Every response reports the cost (excerpt):

```json
"usage": {
  "prompt_tokens": 12000,
  "completion_tokens": 800,
  "total_tokens": 12800,
  "cost": 0.032,
  "is_byok": false
}
```

`cost` is in US dollars at list price, at the peak or off-peak price that applied. On credits it’s exactly what’s deducted from your balance; on [your own keys](https://clonvo.com/docs/byok.md) it shows what the request would have cost, and Clonvo deducts only its fee, if any. When streaming, it’s in the final usage chunk. The dashboard’s activity view shows the same figure per request, and usage analytics add it up by project, key and model.

## Balance and running out

Before each request, Clonvo reserves the most the request could cost: the prompt plus the full output allowance (`max_tokens`, or the model’s maximum output when you don’t set it). Requests already in progress count against your balance too.

When you don’t set `max_tokens` and your balance (or the API key’s remaining limit) can’t cover the model’s maximum output, Clonvo doesn’t refuse the request: it caps the response at what your credits can pay for and sends that cap to the provider as `max_tokens`. A response that would have run longer stops with `finish_reason: "length"`. A `max_tokens` you set yourself is never lowered.

If the reservation still doesn’t fit, for example when your balance can’t pay for even a short response or your own `max_tokens` is too high for it, the request fails with `402`. The fix is to add credits or lower `max_tokens`:

```json
{
  "error": {
    "message": "This request needs up to $0.6450 in credits but your available balance is $0.4210 (including requests still in progress). Lower max_tokens or add credits at https://clonvo.com/app/acme/credits.",
    "type": "insufficient_credits",
    "code": "insufficient_credits",
    "param": null
  }
}
```

Requests on [your own provider keys](https://clonvo.com/docs/byok.md) within the monthly allowance and [free models](https://clonvo.com/docs/free-models.md) keep working with an empty balance.

You’re charged for what the request actually used, and the rest of the reservation is released once usage settles, usually within seconds. API keys with a spending limit work the same way and fail with `402 key_limit_exceeded` when the reservation doesn’t fit the key’s remaining limit.

Check your balance from code with [`GET /v1/credits`](https://clonvo.com/docs/other-endpoints.md#get-v1-credits).

## Auto top-up

Auto top-up adds credits when your balance runs low, so requests don’t stop. An owner or admin turns it on under **Credits** and sets three amounts:

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| When balance falls below | The balance that starts a top-up, from $1. |
| Add this many credits | The credits each top-up adds, from $5 to $2,000. The usual purchase fee and any tax are charged on top. |
| Monthly limit | The most credits auto top-up can add in a calendar month (UTC). |

Saving for the first time opens checkout to authorize a card, which charges nothing. After that, each top-up runs by itself and appears in your purchase history.

Auto top-up runs after usage is recorded, so a burst of requests can use up the balance before the credits arrive. Set the threshold above what you spend in a few minutes. It stops by itself after three failed charges in a row, and when it reaches the monthly limit it waits for the next month. Owners get an email either way.

Turning it off cancels the card authorization, so no further charges can be made.

## Spending limits

Give API keys spending limits to cap what each one can use per day, week, month or in total. They’re available from Pay as you go up. See [Authentication](https://clonvo.com/docs/authentication.md#spending-limits).

## Bring your own keys

Requests on your own provider keys are billed by the provider, not deducted from credits, except for Clonvo’s fee above $25,000 of monthly usage. Your own keys are available from Pay as you go up. See [Bring your own keys](https://clonvo.com/docs/byok.md).