Pricing

Universal API uses a credit-based billing system. Every API call costs credits.

Credit Conversion

1 credit = $0.001 USD (1,000 credits = $1.00)

Free Tier

Every new account gets 100 free credits ($0.10 value) — enough to explore the platform.

Free MCP Connections

MCP protocol handshake requests — initialize, tools/list, ping, and other lightweight connection requests — are completely free (0 credits). Any MCP request using less than 0.5 GB-seconds of compute is not charged. This means connecting your AI tools (Claude Desktop, Cline, Cursor, etc.) to MCP servers costs nothing.

Credit Costs

Resource Type	Cost per Call	USD Equivalent
MCP Server connections	Free (initialize, list tools, ping)	Free
MCP Server tool calls	1 credit minimum	$0.001 min
Agent chat	2–20 credits (varies by model/tokens)	$0.002–$0.02
Voice agents	50 credits/minute	$0.05/min
Browser sessions	~5 credits/minute (2 credit minimum)	~$0.005/min
Search	1 credit	$0.001
Knowledge search	1 credit	$0.001
Code Server	2–10 credits/minute (varies by instance)	$0.002–$0.01/min
Website CDN invalidation	15 credits per request	$0.015
Channels & Cron jobs	No extra cost (standard agent credits)	—

Agent Chat Costs

Agent costs depend on the LLM model used:

Model	Approximate Cost per Chat	USD Equivalent
Nova Micro	~2 credits	~$0.002
Nova Lite	~2 credits	~$0.002
Nova Pro	~3–5 credits	~$0.003–$0.005
Nova Premier	~10–20 credits	~$0.01–$0.02
Claude 3.5 Haiku	~3–5 credits	~$0.003–$0.005
Claude Sonnet 4	~5–15 credits	~$0.005–$0.015
Claude Sonnet 4.5	~5–15 credits	~$0.005–$0.015
Claude Opus 4	~15–50 credits	~$0.015–$0.05
DeepSeek R1	~5–15 credits	~$0.005–$0.015
Llama 4 Scout	~2–5 credits	~$0.002–$0.005
Llama 4 Maverick	~2–5 credits	~$0.002–$0.005
Mistral Large 3	~3–8 credits	~$0.003–$0.008

Agents using Platform Bedrock (no AWS keys needed) include LLM costs in the credit charge. Agents using your own AWS keys only charge the base platform fee.

Voice Agent Costs

Voice agents use Amazon Nova Sonic for real-time speech and are billed per minute:

Component	Rate
Per-minute rate	50 credits/minute ($0.05/min)
Minimum session	1 minute (50 credits)
Minimum credits to start	50 credits
Max session duration	20 minutes

Voice sessions include both LLM (Nova Sonic) and compute (Fargate) costs. Billing is calculated at session end.

Browser Session Costs

Browser-enabled agents use AWS Bedrock AgentCore Browser for managed headless browser sessions:

Component	Rate
Per-minute rate	~5 credits/minute (~$0.005/min)
Minimum session	2 credits
Pricing model	3× AWS cost (vCPU-hours + GB-hours)

Browser costs are added on top of the standard agent chat credits. A typical quick page check costs ~2 credits; a multi-step form submission costs ~9 credits; a 10-minute research session costs ~37 credits.

Subscription Tiers

Feature	Free	Starter	Professional
Credits/month	100 ($0.10)	30,000 ($30)	600,000 ($600)
Knowledge storage	100 MB	50 GB	1 TB
Website hosting	50 MB	1 GB	10 GB
Code Server	❌	✅ 1 instance	✅ 1 instance
Task Board	❌	✅	✅
Voice agents	✅	✅	✅
Channels	✅	✅	✅
Cron jobs	✅	✅	✅
Access tokens	2	5	10
Support	Community	Email (72h SLA)	Email (24h SLA)
Price	$0	$29/month	$575/month

Annual plans available at 5% discount.

Credit Packs

Need more credits without a subscription? Purchase credit packs:

Pack	Credits	Price	Discount
Small	5,000	$5.00	—
Medium	25,000	$24.25	3% off
Large	100,000	$96.00	4% off

Credit packs are added to your balance immediately and never expire.

Platform Features Included

All plans include access to the full platform:

MCP Servers — Host and connect to MCP servers from Claude Desktop, Cline, Cursor, and other AI tools
AI Agents — Build and deploy Strands agents with tool use, streaming, and multi-model support
Voice Agents — Real-time voice conversations powered by Amazon Nova Sonic (browser and Twilio phone)
Browser Agents — Managed headless browser sessions powered by AWS Bedrock AgentCore Browser
Knowledge Storage — Upload files for agent context and semantic search
Website Hosting — Deploy static websites at site.universalapi.co/{alias}/
Channels — Connect agents to Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, and generic webhooks
Cron Jobs — Schedule agents to run on a recurring basis (rate or cron expressions with timezone support)
Code Server — Cloud development environment with VS Code, Claude Code CLI, and Cline (Starter+ only)
Task Board — Dispatch parallel agentic tasks to your Code Server instance (Starter+ only)
Semantic Search — Search across all public resources (agents, MCP servers, tools)
Author Dashboard — Track earnings, manage resources, and connect Stripe for payouts
API Access — Full REST API with Bearer token authentication

How Credits Are Calculated

Each invocation cost = compute fee + LLM fee (if applicable) + author fee (if set) + marketplace fee (if author fee set).

Component	Rate	Notes
Compute (Lambda + API GW)	Our infrastructure rates	Covers hosting, routing, and protocol overhead
LLM tokens (Bedrock)	AWS cost + 20%	Only when using platform Bedrock (no AWS keys needed)
Author fee	Author's set price	100% goes to the author
Marketplace fee	+20% of author fee	Charged to caller on top of author's price

MCP protocol requests (initialize, ping, tools/list) are free — any request under 0.5 GB-seconds of compute is not charged.

Author Earnings

Build and publish resources on Universal API and earn money when others use them.

How It Works

Create a public MCP server or agent
Set pricing — choose a per-invocation credit price (or use the default 1 credit)
Earn revenue — every time someone uses your resource, you earn a share
Get paid — monthly payouts via Stripe Connect

Revenue Split

Authors keep 100% of their set price. Universal API charges a 20% marketplace fee on top — paid by the caller, not deducted from the author.

Component	How it works
Author revenue	100% of their configured price
Marketplace fee	+20% of author's price (charged to caller)

Example: author sets $0.01/invocation → caller is charged $0.012 ($0.01 to author + $0.002 platform fee).

Payout Requirements

Minimum payout: $10 USD
Payout frequency: Monthly (1st of each month)
Payment method: Stripe Connect (Express accounts)
Setup: Go to universalapi.co → Author Dashboard → Payouts → Connect Stripe

Tracking Earnings

View your earnings at any time:

bash

# Get earnings breakdown
curl -s https://api.universalapi.co/author/earnings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" | jq

# Get your resources with usage metrics
curl -s https://api.universalapi.co/author/resources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" | jq

Managing Your Subscription

bash

# Check current subscription
curl -s https://api.universalapi.co/user/subscription \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" | jq

# Get checkout URL for upgrade
curl -s -X POST https://api.universalapi.co/subscription/checkout \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"priceId": "price_xxx"}' | jq

# Manage subscription (cancel, change plan)
curl -s -X POST https://api.universalapi.co/subscription/portal \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" | jq

Pricing ​

Free Tier ​

Free MCP Connections ​

Credit Costs ​

Agent Chat Costs ​

Voice Agent Costs ​

Browser Session Costs ​

Subscription Tiers ​

Credit Packs ​

Platform Features Included ​

How Credits Are Calculated ​

Author Earnings ​

How It Works ​

Revenue Split ​

Payout Requirements ​

Tracking Earnings ​

Managing Your Subscription ​