How to pay for the Claude API: top up with Alipay or WeChat Pay without an international credit card

The most common obstacle to using the Claude API isn't code, but payment: Anthropic only accepts credit or debit cards that work for international transactions, and doesn't support Alipay or WeChat Pay. This guide explains another option: top up through Kunavo (an API gateway compatible with the OpenAI and Anthropic interfaces) using Alipay or WeChat Pay. You can go from signup to your first Claude API call without an international credit card. Pricing and payment methods verified on October 3, 2026.

What you need before you start

An email address, an Alipay or WeChat account, and $10 (the minimum top-up; the amount will be shown in yuan at checkout). This is prepaid balance with no subscription or monthly fee, and it doesn't expire. If you just want to try it, $10 can go a long way: Claude Haiku 4.5 costs only $0.70 per million input tokens, so a test run costs just a few cents.

Steps

1. Create an account

Sign up at kunavo.com using your email or Google account. No card is required to register.

2. Choose a top-up amount

Go to Billing and select a top-up tier. The amount is shown in dollars and will be converted to yuan at the next step.

3. Select Alipay or WeChat Pay at checkout

Click Top up to open the Stripe-hosted checkout page. Alipay and WeChat Pay are among the payment methods, and you can also use a bank card. When opened in mainland China, the amount will be shown in yuan; check that it's correct before paying.

4. Scan the QR code to pay

The checkout page displays a QR code. Scan it with Alipay or WeChat, check the amount, and confirm. The balance is credited within seconds of successful payment. If it doesn't appear immediately, refresh the Billing page; don't pay again.

5. Create an API key and make your first call

Create a key at /app/keys (it starts with sk-kn- and is shown only once, so save it immediately). Then:

# 余额到账后，第一次调用（OpenAI 兼容格式）
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": "用一句话回答：调用成功了吗？"}]
  }'

For projects already using the OpenAI SDK, just change base_url:

# 已有 OpenAI SDK 的代码：只改 base_url 和 key
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="sk-kn-...",                    # 在 kunavo.com/app/keys 创建
    base_url="https://api.kunavo.com/v1",   # 唯一需要改的一行
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-5",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "你好"}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

If you're using Claude Code, set these two environment variables:

# Claude Code 使用同一把 key（Anthropic Messages 格式）
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.kunavo.com   # 不要加 /v1
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-kn-...
claude

For configuration in more clients, see Claude Code integration guide.

How much does it actually cost?

Claude Sonnet 5 on Kunavo costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $7.00(Anthropic's official price: $2.00 / $10.00) per million output tokens. See the pricing page for full model pricing. To estimate costs based on your own usage, use the Claude token cost calculator.

Limitations to know

• Automatic top-ups can only be linked to a bank card or Link; Alipay and WeChat Pay require manual top-ups.
• Chinese VAT invoices are not issued.
• This is a token-billed API, not a Claude.ai chat subscription (Pro/Max).

To use the same balance to call GPT, see Pay for the OpenAI API with Alipay and WeChat Pay; for Claude Code pricing and installation, see Claude Code pricing and Claude Code installation guide, respectively.

Frequently asked questions