Billing & Credits

Bytez uses a credit-based system. Credits are consumed when you run models, and how they’re consumed depends on whether you’re using closed-source or open-source models.

Plans

Free

Run open models up to 7B parameters
Access all closed model providers
1 concurrent request (open models)
10 requests/second (closed models)
Credits refresh every 4 weeks

Pay-as-you-go

Run open models up to 120B parameters
Access all closed model providers
Rate limits scale with credits purchased
Unlimited closed model requests
Add credits anytime

How Credits Work

Credits are a unified currency across all models on Bytez. When you run a model, credits are deducted from your balance based on usage.

Model Type	How Credits Are Consumed
Closed models	Based on provider pricing (per token, per image, per video, etc.)
Open models	Per second of inference

Your credits purchased in the last 4 weeks determine two things:

Which open models you can access - Larger open models require more credits purchased to unlock
Your rate limits - More credits purchased unlocks more concurrent requests

Adding credits immediately unlocks higher tiers. You don’t need to wait for the next billing cycle.

Credit Unlock Thresholds

Credits Purchased (last 4 weeks)	Open Model Access	Concurrent Requests (7B)
$0 (Free)	Up to 7B	1
$3+	Up to 7B	4
$10+	Up to 35B	4
$25+	Up to 70B	10
$50+	Up to 120B	20
$100+	Up to 120B	40
$500+	Up to 120B	200
$1,000+	Up to 120B	400

Credits expire 4 weeks after purchase. Use them or lose them!

Closed Model Billing

For closed-source models (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Cohere), we pass through the provider’s pricing plus a small platform fee.

Your cost = Provider price + 2% platform fee

Providers charge differently depending on the model and modality - per token for text, per image for image generation, per second for video, etc. We pass through whatever the provider charges. Example: If OpenAI charges per M tokens, you pay per M tokens.

Why the 2% fee?

The platform fee covers:

Unified API translation and standardization
Request routing and load balancing
Usage tracking and analytics
Support and reliability infrastructure

You get a single API, single billing, and single format across all providers.

What’s included

Pass-through pricing - Pay only for what the provider charges
No minimum - No monthly minimums or commitments
Real-time pricing - We pass through provider rates as they change

Open Model Billing

Open-source models run on our serverless GPU infrastructure. You’re billed per second of inference time - no cold start fees, no idle charges.

Your cost = Inference time (seconds) x Rate for model size

Pricing by Model Size

Bigger models use more VRAM, so they cost more per second:

Model Size	Per Second	Per Hour
7B	$0.000072	~$0.26
15B	$0.000108	~$0.39
35B	$0.000144	~$0.52
70B	$0.000216	~$0.78
120B	$0.00036	~$1.30

How we calculate pricing

Our base rate is $0.0000045/GB-second of VRAM used.For comparison:

Bytez: $0.0000045/GB-sec (with Nvidia GPUs)
AWS Lambda: $0.0000167/GB-sec (CPUs only)

That’s 3.7x cheaper than AWS Lambda, and you get serverless Nvidia GPUs, not just serverless CPUs.

What’s included

Per-second billing - Billed in 1-second increments
No cold start fees - You don’t pay while the model loads
No idle charges - You don’t pay when not running inference
No reserved instances - No commitments, no minimums

Auto-Reload

Auto-reload automatically tops up your credit balance when it runs low, so your API calls never fail unexpectedly.

How it works

Setting	Default	Description
Threshold	$3	Reload triggers when balance drops below this
Reload amount	$10	Amount added to your balance
Monthly max	$100	Maximum auto-reload spend per month

Balance drops below threshold

When your credit balance falls below $3 (default), auto-reload activates

Card is charged

Your saved payment method is charged $10 (default reload amount)

Credits are added

$10 in credits is immediately added to your balance

Monthly cap enforced

Auto-reload stops if you’ve hit your monthly maximum ($100 default)

If Auto-Reload is Disabled

When auto-reload is off and your credits run out, you may get an API response like this:

{
  "status": 402,
  "error": "Payment Required",
  "message": "Insufficient credits. Please add credits to continue."
}

If you’re running production workloads, we recommend enabling auto-reload to prevent unexpected failures.

Configuring Auto-Reload

You can enable, disable, or adjust auto-reload settings in your API Dashboard.

Auto-Scaling (Open Models)

By default, if you exceed your open model rate limits, requests are rejected with a rate-limit error. If you want your rate limits to automatically scale with your traffic in production, add autoScale: true to your request:

const response = await fetch('https://api.bytez.com/v1/chat/completions', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': API_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    model: 'meta-llama/Llama-3-70b',
    messages: [...],
    autoScale: true
  })
});

When enabled, the system auto-purchases extra credits required to keep auto-scaling. You can control your Max Monthly Spend in your API Dashboard to cap costs. This way you can auto-scale and control your budget.

For closed models, you get unlimited rate limits on a pay-as-you-go basis - no auto-scaling needed.

Billing Cycle

Free Plan

Billing: None
Credits: free credits, refreshed every 4 weeks
Expiration: Credits expire 4 weeks after grant

Pay-as-you-go Plan

Billing: charged on signup date
Credits: $5 in credits granted each billing cycle
Expiration: All credits expire 4 weeks after grant

Adding Credits Mid-Cycle

You can add credits at any time. When you do:

Immediate access - Higher model tiers and rate limits unlock instantly
No proration - You get the full credit amount immediately
Credits stack - Purchased credits add to your existing balance

Example: You’re on Pay-as-you-go with remaining. You add . Your new balance is , which immediately unlocks 70B models and 10 concurrent requests.

FAQ

What happens if I run out of credits mid-request?

In-flight requests will complete. Only new requests will fail with a 402 error.

Can I get a refund on unused credits?

Credits are non-refundable and expire 4 weeks after purchase.

How do I track my usage?

Visit your API Dashboard to see real-time usage, credit balance, and request history.

Why do bigger models require more credits purchased?

Larger models require more GPU resources (VRAM). Requiring a minimum purchase threshold ensures you have enough credits to complete meaningful workloads without running out mid-task.

Is there volume pricing?

For high-volume usage (>/month), contact us at team@bytez.com for custom pricing.

​Plans

Free

Pay-as-you-go

​How Credits Work

​Credit Unlock Thresholds

​Closed Model Billing

​What’s included

​Open Model Billing

​Pricing by Model Size

​What’s included

​Auto-Reload

​How it works

​If Auto-Reload is Disabled

​Configuring Auto-Reload

​Auto-Scaling (Open Models)

​Billing Cycle

​Adding Credits Mid-Cycle

​FAQ

Plans

How Credits Work

Credit Unlock Thresholds

Closed Model Billing

What’s included

Open Model Billing

Pricing by Model Size

What’s included

Auto-Reload

How it works

If Auto-Reload is Disabled

Configuring Auto-Reload

Auto-Scaling (Open Models)

Billing Cycle

Adding Credits Mid-Cycle

FAQ