Give your agent a budget
Agents shouldn't hold your credit card or a fistful of API keys. Give them one prepaid balance with hard limits, and see everything they spend.
The problem
An agent that calls paid APIs needs a way to pay. A card means an open-ended bill. One API key per provider means a separate account, a separate bill and a secret that can leak, for every capability.
The pattern
- One prepaid balance. Sign up at /start and your agent gets one token. New accounts start with 500 free credits; 1 credit = $0.01.
- Listed prices. The agent calls capabilities at their listed prices, and the listed number is what the balance is debited. Exact numbers are on /capabilities.
- Hard limits, checked first. Set daily or monthly caps per agent and keep the kill switch ready. Both are checked before a call is dispatched.
- A 402, not a surprise bill. When the balance runs out mid-task, your agent gets an HTTP 402 with a top-up link it hands to you. If you have consented once to auto-refill, it tops up within the limits you set.
- A receipt for every call. Every call lands on a signed audit chain you can export, and failed provider calls are refunded.
How your agent connects
Over MCP (npx -y apifare-mcp, or streamable HTTP at https://apifare.com/mcp) or plain HTTP with a bearer token.
Set it up
Get a key at /start (email in, token out, shown once), then connect your agent with its integration guide. The full reference is in the docs.
More guides
One key for every API · Scrapers and data tools under hard caps · Docs