Buy AI credits: what to check before you pay
Discounted OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock or Azure OpenAI capacity is worth having, and most of what gets offered is not what it appears to be. The first question is never the price — it is whether the arrangement is permitted at all, and whether the balance can cover the workload you actually run. This page is the checklist we use before we introduce anyone.
Free to inquire, no purchase commitment, and no live inventory implied.
What is actually being sold
“AI credits” covers three quite different things. Work out which one you are being offered before you compare anything.
- A prepaid API balance on someone else's account
- The most common offer, and the one that needs the hardest look. The balance is attached to an organisation along with its keys, usage tier and model access, so what is really being proposed is access to an account — not a voucher you can redeem on your own. Decide whether your workload can live there, who controls billing, and what happens to you if that account is closed.
- Programme or promotional credit
- Accelerator grants, research access, partner awards. These carry conditions on top of the standard terms, and those conditions are the ones most likely to prohibit a transfer outright. A seller who cannot name the programme their credit came from cannot tell you what it permits.
- Cloud credit you intend to spend on AI services
- An AWS, Azure or Google Cloud balance aimed at Bedrock, Azure OpenAI or Vertex AI. Cloud credits are usually tied to a billing account rather than being freely transferable, and they list the services they apply to. Check that list against the services you actually need before anything else.
What the providers themselves say
Read these rather than taking anyone’s word for it, ours included. Two of the five prohibit transfer in plain language, which is the single most useful fact on this page and the one least often mentioned by sites selling the idea. We keep the exact wording, with dates, on what each provider publishes about selling credits.
OpenAI
OpenAI’s Service Credit Terms prohibit transfers and sales of service credits. A claimed balance or working API key does not establish permission. Ask for the applicable agreement and any explicit provider approval before considering an arrangement.
Anthropic / Claude
Name the API endpoint your application uses and who bills for it. Do not assume a direct Anthropic balance covers a workload billed by AWS or Google Cloud, or that a Claude subscription includes API spend.
AWS
Prepare a breakdown of your intended EC2, storage, database, AI and other usage. Ask which charges the particular grant covers and which remain payable. Do not assume every AWS charge is eligible.
Azure
Ask for the exact Azure offer, subscription type, remaining benefit and end date. A screenshot of a balance without the offer conditions does not establish what you can use.
Google Cloud
Specify whether you need Google Cloud services such as Vertex AI or a different Google developer product. Ask the seller to identify the billing account and services the credit actually covers.
Four checks, in this order
Permission, before price
Ask what agreement the credit was issued under, and read it. A screenshot of a balance, a working API key or a seller's assurance are not permission — and a private contract between you and a seller cannot override the agreement either of you has with the provider. If nobody can point you at a term that allows the arrangement, assume it is not allowed.
Usable value, not face value
Work out how much of the balance your workload could actually spend before it expires, at the models, regions and services it is restricted to. Compare that number — not the headline — with direct provider pricing, and add any fees, migration time and charges the credit does not cover.
Throughput and model access
Rate limits and model availability are properties of the account, not of the balance. Confirm the requests and tokens per minute your application needs are actually available on the account being proposed. The money is often not the binding constraint.
What happens when it goes wrong
Agree in writing who is responsible if access stops, the provider intervenes, or the balance turns out to be smaller or more restricted than stated. There is no escrow here and we do not hold funds, so this clause is the only protection you have.
The offer comparison guide works through the arithmetic, and the buyer’s checklist covers what to settle in writing.
Walk away from these
- An offer to sell you an API key. That is account access, not a credit transfer, and no provider's terms permit it.
- A balance screenshot offered as proof of permission. It establishes a number on a page and nothing about what may be done with it.
- A seller who cannot say which programme or purchase the credit came from.
- Pressure to move fast because the credit expires soon. Expiry is a reason to price it low, not a reason to skip the checks.
- A quoted percentage off before anyone has looked at your workload or the account the credit sits on.
- Any request for your own credentials, customer data or recovery codes, from a seller or from us.
Buying AI credits: common questions
Can you actually buy AI credits?
Why not just take the discount and not ask?
How much discount should I expect?
Do you hold the money until the credits arrive?
What should I put in a buyer brief?
How quickly will I hear back?
Tell us what your workload needs
Provider, models, budget and timeline. We review it by hand, and if there is a seller whose credit genuinely fits — and an arrangement their provider permits — we make the introduction. If there is not, we say so.
Holding credits rather than looking for them? Selling AI credits is the other side of this page.