Credits & Billing

Private Beta: Stratus is currently in private beta. Visit stratus.run to apply for access.

Stratus uses a credit-based pricing model. Purchase in advance, pay only for what you use — no subscriptions, no monthly fees.

1 credit = $0.05

Flat rate across all packages. No hidden fees.

Credits never expire

No monthly commitments. Use at your own pace.

Per-request billing

Credits are deducted as requests complete. The model is never called if your balance is insufficient.

Credit Packages

Package	Credits	Price	Per Credit
Starter	1,000	$50	$0.05
Pro	5,000	$250	$0.05
Enterprise	25,000	$1,250	$0.05

Same $0.05 rate across all packages. Credits never expire.

Purchasing Credits

Dashboard (Card)
API (x402 / USDC)

Sign in at stratus.run/dashboard
Click “Purchase Credits”
Select a package and proceed to checkout
Enter your card details via Stripe’s secure hosted checkout
Credits are added to your balance immediately upon payment

Stratus never stores your card details — all payments are processed by Stripe.

Stratus also supports programmatic credit purchases via the x402 payment protocol — USDC on Base.

# List available packages
curl https://api.stratus.run/v1/credits/packages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STRATUS_API_KEY"

# Initiate a purchase — returns 402 with payment instructions
curl -X POST https://api.stratus.run/v1/credits/purchase/starter \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STRATUS_API_KEY"

The 402 response contains an x402 payment challenge with the required USDC amount and treasury address on Base. Pay the amount, then retry with the X-PAYMENT header containing the signed transaction. Credits are posted immediately upon on-chain settlement.

How Credits Are Consumed

Credits are deducted based on:

Model used — different models have different credit costs
Token count — more tokens = more credits
Key source — Formation’s pool adds a 25% markup; BYOK does not

Formation Pool vs. BYOK

Key Source	Credit Cost	LLM Cost
Formation pool (default)	Base cost × 1.25	Covered by Formation (included in markup)
Your own key (BYOK)	Base cost only	Billed directly to your provider account

Every response includes billing transparency in the stratus field:

{
  "stratus": {
    "key_source": "formation",
    "formation_markup_applied": 0.25
  }
}

With BYOK: key_source is "user" and formation_markup_applied is null.

Credit Costs by Model

Approximate usage per request (varies by token count):

Model	Credits per 1K tokens	Typical request
`stratus-x1ac-small-gpt-4o-mini`	0.02	0.05–0.10 credits
`stratus-x1ac-small-gpt-4o`	0.15	0.20–0.40 credits
`stratus-x1ac-base-gpt-4o`	0.25	0.30–0.60 credits
`stratus-x1ac-large-gpt-4o`	0.40	0.50–1.00 credits
`stratus-x1ac-base-claude-sonnet-4-5`	0.20	0.25–0.50 credits

Actual usage varies by prompt and response length. Monitor your balance from the Dashboard.

Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)

BYOK removes Formation’s 25% pool markup by routing LLM calls through your own provider account instead of Formation’s shared OpenRouter pool.

How It Works

Store your provider keys in Stratus vault (encrypted AES-256-GCM) — or pass them per-request via inline headers
Stratus routes LLM calls directly through your key
You pay your provider at your negotiated rates — not deducted from credits
Credits cover only the X1 planning layer — no markup applied

No Markup

Pay providers directly at your rates. Formation’s 25% pool markup is not applied.

Privacy

Vault-stored keys are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM and never leave encrypted storage.

Set up BYOK via Dashboard → LLM Keys or POST /v1/account/llm-keys. See Authentication → BYOK for the full setup guide.

Referrals

Every Stratus account includes 5 referral codes — share them to earn credits when friends sign up.

Your reward: 25 credits ($1.25) added to your balance for each successful referral
Find your codes: Dashboard → Referrals
Referral link format: https://stratus.run/?ref=STR-XXXXXXXX

Referral credits appear as bonus transactions in your billing history.

Billing History

View all credit activity from Dashboard → Billing History:

Purchases — Stripe card payments and x402/USDC purchases
Usage — per-request credit deductions
Bonuses — referral rewards
Refunds / Grants — any manual adjustments

To manage your payment method or download past invoices, use the Billing Portal — accessible from the dashboard under billing settings.

Cost Optimization

Choose the Right Model

// Lowest cost — simple tasks
model: 'stratus-x1ac-small-gpt-4o-mini'

// Good balance — most use cases
model: 'stratus-x1ac-small-gpt-4o'

// Complex reasoning — higher cost
model: 'stratus-x1ac-large-gpt-4o'

Limit Response Length

const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'stratus-x1ac-small-gpt-4o',
  messages: [...],
  max_tokens: 100
});

Use BYOK

Eliminate the 25% Formation pool markup by adding your own provider key — the single most impactful cost reduction for high-volume usage.

Troubleshooting

402 — Insufficient Credits

{
  "error": "insufficient_credits",
  "message": "Insufficient credits. Required: 0.05, Available: 0.01",
  "required_credits": 0.05,
  "available_credits": 0.01,
  "x402": {
    "x402Version": 1,
    "accepts": [
      {
        "scheme": "exact",
        "network": "eip155:8453",
        "description": "Pay for inference: 1 credits ($0.05 USDC)",
        "payTo": "..."
      }
    ],
    "error": "Payment required"
  },
  "top_up_url": "https://api.stratus.run/v1/credits/purchase/starter"
}

Cause: The estimated cost of the request exceeds your credit balance. This is a pre-flight check — the model is never called. Fix: Top up via the Dashboard or follow the top_up_url in the error response for the API purchase flow.

FAQs

Do credits expire? No. Credits never expire. What happens when I run out of credits? The next request fails pre-flight with a 402 before the model is called. No partial charges. Can I transfer credits between accounts? No. Credits are tied to the purchasing account and cannot be transferred. Are there hidden fees? No. $0.05/credit. Formation pool adds a 25% markup; BYOK removes it. No monthly fees, setup fees, or other charges. Do you offer custom pricing for high volume? Yes — email sales@stratus.run for Enterprise pricing beyond the 25K package. Can I get a refund? Email billing@stratus.run with your account email and purchase date. Refund requests are considered within 30 days of purchase for unused credits.

Next Steps

Authentication

Set up API keys and configure BYOK to pay providers directly.

Quickstart

Make your first API call in under 60 seconds.

API Reference

Full endpoint docs, parameters, and error codes.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Libraries

AI Tools

Tutorials

1 credit = $0.05

Credits never expire

Per-request billing

Credit Packages

Purchasing Credits

How Credits Are Consumed

Formation Pool vs. BYOK

Credit Costs by Model

Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)

How It Works

No Markup

Privacy

Referrals

Billing History

Cost Optimization

Choose the Right Model

Limit Response Length

Use BYOK

Troubleshooting

402 — Insufficient Credits

FAQs

Next Steps

Authentication

Quickstart

API Reference

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Libraries

AI Tools

Tutorials

1 credit = $0.05

Credits never expire

Per-request billing

​Credit Packages

​Purchasing Credits

​How Credits Are Consumed

​Formation Pool vs. BYOK

​Credit Costs by Model

​Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)

​How It Works

No Markup

Privacy

​Referrals

​Billing History

​Cost Optimization

​Choose the Right Model

​Limit Response Length

​Use BYOK

​Troubleshooting

​402 — Insufficient Credits

​FAQs

​Next Steps

Authentication

Quickstart

API Reference

Credit Packages

Purchasing Credits

How Credits Are Consumed

Formation Pool vs. BYOK

Credit Costs by Model

Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)

How It Works

Referrals

Billing History

Cost Optimization

Choose the Right Model

Limit Response Length

Use BYOK

Troubleshooting

402 — Insufficient Credits

FAQs

Next Steps