Quickstart
Create an API key, add credit and make your first request.
Add credit
Open the Wallet page, pick an amount and pay with Stripe. The credit appears in your balance as soon as the payment clears.
Create an API key
Open the API Keys page and create a key. Copy the key (it starts with sk-) and keep it out of source control:
export CHEAPAIMODEL_API_KEY="sk-..."Make a request
Pick a model ID from the model catalog and send a chat completion. The examples use deepseek-v4-1-flash; replace it with any model you see in the catalog.
curl https://api.cheapaimodel.ai/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $CHEAPAIMODEL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Say hello in five words." }]
}'Check your usage
The console's Overview, Activity and Logs pages show your balance, daily spend and every call with its token counts and cost.
Next steps
- Use a coding tool: Codex CLI, Cursor, Cline, Continue, Zed or Aider.
- Build with a framework: LangChain, LlamaIndex, Vercel AI SDK or LiteLLM.
- Connect an app: Open WebUI, Dify, n8n or OpenClaw.
- Lock a key down with a budget or allowlist: Authentication & API keys.