AI Gateway prepaid credits

The Neon AI Gateway is billed with prepaid credits. You buy credits up front, and AI Gateway usage draws down your balance. This page explains who can buy credits, how pricing and usage limits work, how to purchase or top up, and how to check your balance.

The AI Gateway is available on paid Neon plans only. It is not included in the Free plan. See Neon plans and About billing.

• 1 credit = $1 USD. Credits are prepaid, purchased before use.
• Minimum purchase: $5.
• Minimum balance: $2.
• Credits expire 12 months after purchase.
• Your balance can go negative. Usage is metered after a request is served, so a final request can push the balance below zero.

Your balance draws down as usage is metered. Each request consumes credits based on its token usage, so your balance decreases as you send requests. For example, a small request might reduce a $25.00 balance to $24.99.

• Only organization admins can purchase credits.
• The organization must be billed directly by payment card.
• Members, editors, and viewers cannot purchase credits.
• Sales-invoiced, marketplace, trial, sponsored, and shared-token accounts cannot purchase credits through this self-service flow. Contact your account team for assistance.

Buying credits is a Neon Console flow:

1. In the Neon Console, select Billing.
2. Find the AI gateway credits card and select Add credits.
3. Select a preset amount: $5, $10, $25, $50, or $100. You can also select Other to enter a custom amount. The default selection is $25, and the minimum purchase is $5.
4. Confirm the purchase. Neon applies a one-time charge to the payment card already on file for your organization.

Credits post to your balance promptly after the charge succeeds. The purchase appears in your credit history as Manual purchase, with the date and amount.

Only one purchase can be open at a time per account. You can't start a second purchase until the first completes.

If a purchase fails. If the payment card on file is declined, the purchase fails and no credits are added to your balance. Neon doesn't leave a payable invoice behind, and failed attempts don't appear in your credit history. Update your card in Billing and try again.

In the Console, select Billing and find the AI gateway credits card. The card shows:

• Credits remaining: your organization's current credit balance.
• Credits added in last 30 days: a history panel that lists each entry's date, source, and amount, plus the total credits added during the period.

The balance is shown in whole cents, so small or occasional requests might not visibly change it even though their metered usage still draws down the balance.

AI Gateway usage is subject to soft limits that guard against runaway cost and abuse:

• Per-minute token limit. A soft limit of 200,000 tokens per minute (TPM) applies, but this may vary by account.
• Daily spend cap. A $20 per day limit applies to total usage, but this may vary by account.

Short-window rate limits, the daily spend cap, and balance depletion are distinct:

• Short-window rate limits are surfaced through x-ratelimit-* response headers on each request.
• The daily spend cap limits how much you can spend in a single day.
• Balance depletion happens when your prepaid credits run out.

If you're blocked and need a limit raised, contact Support. See Rate limits for details.

When you exceed a limit, the API returns HTTP 429:

{
  "error_code": "REQUEST_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
  "message": "ai gateway daily token limit exceeded"
}

A paid account with prepaid credits can use the open-weight AI Gateway models. Foundation models are rolled out gradually and require requesting access. See Model access for what's included and how to apply.

The model list is subject to change. See Supported models for the current catalog.

Automatic top-up is not available. You add credits manually by purchasing as described above.

The AI Gateway is available in AWS US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), Europe (Frankfurt), and Asia Pacific (Singapore) (more regions to follow).

IP Allow and Private Link do not cover AI Gateway traffic.

If your organization moves to the Free plan, any AI Gateway credits remain on your account, but the AI Gateway is not usable on Free. Your credits become usable again when you upgrade to a paid plan.

• AI Gateway overview
• Supported models
• AI Gateway troubleshooting
• About billing
• Manage billing

Join our Discord Server to ask questions or see what others are doing with Neon. For paid plan support options, see Support.