# apilane — Affordable AI API for Coders

> The cheapest way to call GPT-4o, Claude, and DeepSeek.
> Pay per call from $2. Official prices at 1/10 to 1/60.
> Crypto accepted (USDT/BTC). No subscriptions, no hidden fees, no data storage.

## Overview

apilane is a pay-per-call LLM API gateway for individual developers and small teams. It provides OpenAI-compatible endpoints for GPT-4o, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, Llama and other frontier models at 1/10 to 1/60 of official pricing, with crypto payment support and a $2 minimum deposit.

## Core Services

- [Pricing Comparison](https://apilane.one/pricing) — See how much you save vs official prices
- [Model Catalog](https://apilane.one/models) — All supported models with per-model pricing
- [Quick Start Guide](https://apilane.one/docs/quickstart) — 5-minute integration with Python, Node.js, or curl
- [API Reference](https://apilane.one/docs/api) — Full endpoint documentation
- [Security FAQ](https://apilane.one/security) — How we protect your data and credentials
- [Blog](https://apilane.one/blog) — Cost optimization guides and AI API tutorials

## Key Differentiators

- $2 minimum deposit (lowest in the LLM gateway market)
- Crypto payment: USDT (TRC20, BSC, ERC20) and BTC via self-hosted BTCPay Server
- 1/10 to 1/60 of official API prices, depending on the model
- OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://api.apilane.one/v1 — zero migration cost
- No subscription, no lock-in, no platform fee
- No prompt storage, no API key logging, no response modification
- 39+ upstream adapters covering OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Groq, Mistral, Cohere, and others

## Popular Models

- [GPT-4o API](https://apilane.one/models/gpt-4o) — 90% cheaper than OpenAI
- [Claude 3.5 Sonnet API](https://apilane.one/models/claude-3.5-sonnet) — 96.7% cheaper
- [DeepSeek Chat API](https://apilane.one/models/deepseek-chat) — 96.3% cheaper
- [Gemini 2.0 Flash API](https://apilane.one/models/gemini-2.0-flash) — Pay-per-call
- [Llama 3.1 70B API](https://apilane.one/models/llama-3.1-70b) — Open weights, low cost

## Pricing Tiers

- $2 minimum deposit (test the API with real calls)
- $5 / $10 / $20 deposit tiers
- Payment methods: USDT (TRC20, BSC, ERC20) via epusdt, BTC via self-hosted BTCPay Server
- No platform fee, no monthly subscription

## API Compatibility

The apilane endpoint at https://api.apilane.one/v1 is OpenAI-compatible. Any code that uses the official `openai` Python or Node.js SDK works with apilane by changing only the `base_url` and API key. Anthropic-format endpoints are also supported for Claude models.

## Use Cases

- Personal projects and side experiments
- Bootstrapping and indie hacking
- Cost-sensitive production workloads
- Crypto-native teams that prefer USDT/BTC over credit cards
- Developers who want to avoid OpenAI/Anthropic account requirements

## Trust and Privacy

- No prompt content is stored — requests are forwarded and discarded immediately
- API keys are held in memory for forwarding only, never logged or persisted
- Responses are passed through unmodified from upstream providers
- Self-hosted BTCPay Server means no third-party payment processor sees your data
- Tor .onion address available for anonymous access

## Comparisons

- [apilane vs OpenRouter](https://apilane.one/vs/openrouter) — Lower minimum deposit, no platform fee
- [apilane vs OpenAI direct](https://apilane.one/vs/openai) — Same models at 1/10 to 1/60 of the price

## Status and Resources

- [Status Page](https://status.apilane.one) — Real-time availability
- [Blog](https://apilane.one/blog) — Cost optimization guides

## Contact

- Support: support@apilane.one
- GitHub: https://github.com/apilane

## Last Updated

2026-07-09