Pay for Claude API Without a Credit Card

It is not possible to pay Anthropic for the Claude API without a card: its Help Center says it accepts credit and debit cards and does not accept PayPal or Venmo. To use Claude without a credit card, top up a Kunavo balance with Link, Apple Pay, or Google Pay — from $10, with no subscription. Claude on Kunavo costs 30% less than Anthropic's list price, and the same key works with the OpenAI SDK and the native Messages API.

What Anthropic accepts

El artículo about declined cards es claro: tarjetas de crédito y débito para todas las compras, y ningún procesador de terceros como PayPal o Venmo. La tarjeta, además, debe tener una ubicación de facturación que Anthropic admita. El uso de la API se paga por adelantado: según el API billing article, los créditos se compran en la Claude Console, caducan un año después de la compra y no son reembolsables; las organizaciones con un acuerdo de facturación reciben una factura mensual.

Why your card is declined

The same article lists the most common reasons a payment fails:

• the card's billing location is not on Anthropic's list;
• the billing address does not match the one on file with your bank;
• 3D Secure verification was not completed;
• the payment method is not one Anthropic accepts;
• insufficient funds;
• a temporary technical issue.

If none of those fixes it, or you simply do not have a card that works for international payments, the route below does not depend on one.

Payment methods that work on Kunavo

Top-ups go through Stripe Checkout, which displays the methods available for your country and currency. This is the list of payment methods offered by Kunavo Checkout, verified in the live account configuration; nothing else is offered.

Details about balance, top-ups, and records are in the billing documentation.

How to pay, step by step

1. Create an account with your email or Google. No card is required to sign up.
2. Open the billing page and choose an amount: $10 is the minimum top-up.
3. In Stripe Checkout, choose a method from those shown for your country and complete the payment.
4. The balance is credited as soon as Stripe confirms the payment, normally within seconds (ACH debit and Bacs take several business days). Create a key in API keys.
5. Make your first call:

# Cuando el saldo ya está acreditado, la primera llamada es esta.
curl https://api.kunavo.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KUNAVO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "En una línea: ¿funcionó el pago?"}]
  }'

What it costs after that

Claude on Kunavo costs 30% less than Anthropic's list price. Claude Sonnet 5 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $7.00 per million output tokens; Claude Haiku 4.5, $0.70, and $3.50. The balance does not expire and a failed request is not charged. Rates for each model are in Claude pricing.

Frequently asked questions