Billing

GPU Forge is prepaid. You add credit to your balance by card, and usage is deducted from it as it happens. There is no subscription, no minimum term and no setup fee, and credit does not expire.

#What you pay

#How machine prices are set

GPU Forge samples the providers' listings regularly and keeps the market price of each GPU model. The hourly price you pay for a machine is based on that market price plus GPU Forge's service fee. Storage on a parked machine is charged on the same basis.

• You see the price before renting: price.customer_usd_hr on each search result (when null, price.total_usd_hr), and price_usd_hr in the deploy answer.
• The price is locked when the machine is rented. Later market changes never change a running machine's bill.
• Each ready program's usual hourly price is avg_price_per_hour in GET /v1/catalog; jobs are priced from it.

For typical figures (cost per image, per minute of video, per GPU hour) see the public pricing page at gpuforge.io/pricing.

#Your balance

curl -s "https://api.gpuforge.io/v1/billing" -H "Authorization: Bearer $GF_KEY"

{
  "user_id": "usr_...",
  "billing": "prepaid",
  "status": "ok",
  "balance_usd": 42.17,
  "cost_now_usd_hr": 1.12,
  "hours_left": 37.65,
  "stops_machines_at": null,
  "spend_usd": {"last_24h": 3.41, "last_7d": 18.9, "last_30d": 57.2},
  "machines": [
    {"pod_id": "hello-gpu-3f9a1c", "name": "hello-gpu", "capability": "hello-gpu",
     "gpu": "RTX 4090", "gpu_count": 1, "state": "active", "cost_usd_hr": 0.53}
  ],
  "card": {"brand": "visa", "last4": "4242", "exp_month": 12, "exp_year": 2028},
  "auto_topup": {"enabled": true, "below_usd": 10.0, "add_usd": 25.0},
  "auto_topup_fires_below_usd": 10.0,
  "daily_cap_usd": 100.0,
  "topped_up_last_24h_usd": 0.0
}

#Adding credit

On the console (Billing): pay by card through a Stripe page. You can save the card for later top-ups at the same time. A top-up is $5–$5,000. Your own top-ups on the console are not limited by the daily cap.

From the API or CLI, using the card you saved on the console:

curl -s "https://api.gpuforge.io/v1/billing/top-up" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GF_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"amount_usd": 20}'

{
  "top_up": {"topup_id": "top_1a2b3c4d", "amount_usd": 20.0, "trigger": "agent", "status": "succeeded",
             "requested_at": "...", "finished_at": "...", "detail": null, "receipt_url": "https://..."},
  "balance_usd": 62.17,
  "note": null
}

• Charges only the card saved on the console; an API key cannot add or change a card.
• Counts toward your daily cap (default $100 per 24 hours), together with automatic top-ups.
• 402: the card was declined, or the bank wants you to confirm the payment yourself; top up on the console.
• 409: no card saved, another top-up is still going through, or the daily cap would be passed. The message says which.
• If Stripe has not confirmed yet, status is pending and note says so; GET /v1/billing/top-ups shows the outcome.

#Automatic top-up

On the console you can set a rule: when the balance is below X, add Y from your saved card (Y between $5 and $5,000).

• It also fires early when the balance covers less than one hour of your current spend, so a fast-spending account does not run dry between checks. auto_topup_fires_below_usd shows the line in effect now.
• It does not fire within 10 minutes of another card payment, and after a declined charge it waits an hour before trying again.
• When nothing is running, it fires only if the balance is empty.
• It counts toward the daily cap. If the cap stops it, you get a notification.
• Removing the saved card stops automatic top-up.

#Daily cap

The daily cap ($100 by default) bounds how much agent top-ups (POST /v1/billing/top-up with an API key) and automatic top-ups may add in any rolling 24 hours. You change it on the console; API keys cannot.

#Spending limits on programs

See Capabilities.

#When the balance runs out

• Low (less than about an hour of your current spend left): a notification, and automatic top-up if it is on.
• Not enough for a new machine: starting or waking a machine needs the balance to cover about one hour of everything running plus the new machine; otherwise it is refused with 402.
• $0: no new machines, wakes or jobs (402). You are told when your machines will stop.
• $0 for about 10 minutes: every machine on your account is ended and its disk deleted. You are notified.

#Usage and history

#Per machine and job

GET /v1/billing/usage?hours=24

hours is 1–2160 (90 days). Returns total_usd and machines, most expensive first:

#Per program

GET /v1/billing/capabilities?hours=168

For each of your capabilities: today_usd (since 00:00 UTC), window_usd (over hours), daily_budget_usd and budget_reached. Machine spend only; jobs are listed in /v1/billing/usage.

GET /v1/billing/busy?hours=168

Per program, over the last hours: how busy your running machines were, how long they sat parked, and what you paid.

#Top-ups

GET /v1/billing/top-ups?limit=50

Newest first, up to 200. Each entry: topup_id, amount_usd, trigger, status (pending, succeeded or failed), requested_at, finished_at, detail and receipt_url.

#Notifications

GET /v1/notifications?unread=true&limit=50

Messages GPU Forge sent you: balance low or empty, machines stopped, top-ups, automatic top-up paused by the cap, a parked machine about to be released. Returns notifications (newest first, up to 200) and unread_count.

curl -s "https://api.gpuforge.io/v1/notifications/read" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GF_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"all": true}'

Send {"ids": ["..."]} to mark some, or {"all": true} for all. Agents should pass these messages on to their person.

#Refunds

Unused prepaid credit is refundable. Write to support@gpuforge.io from your account's email address and we refund the unused balance to the original card, usually within 10 business days. Compute already used (machine time and completed jobs) is not refundable. If something on our side failed and charged you, tell us and we will put it right.

If a card payment is disputed, the same amount is deducted from your balance and the account is put on hold until it is settled.

#Payments and card data

Card payments are processed by Stripe. GPU Forge never sees or stores your full card number; it keeps only the card brand, the last four digits and the expiry date, to show you which card is saved. Saving or removing a card is done only on the console, by you.

This page as Markdown, for tools and agents: /docs/billing.md