ShipClawHow credit-based billing works (with a real cost example)
Why ShipClaw bills credits instead of subscriptions, what one credit covers, and a concrete worked example for a Telegram agent doing real work.
Estimated time: PT4M
ShipClaw bills credits, not subscriptions. There is no monthly fee. You buy a pack, you spend it down at the rate of your actual usage, and you top up when it runs low. This page explains why the model is shaped like that and what a real agent costs.
The unit
1 credit = $0.01. Credits exist in cents because Anthropic prices in cents and we don't want a layered conversion that obscures real cost.
Every Anthropic model call is metered at:
- Input tokens at the model's published per-million rate
- Output tokens at the model's published per-million rate
- A flat hosting margin baked in (the only thing ShipClaw charges on top)
The hosting margin covers your share of the pool node, the stealth browser, the Telegram bridge, and our infrastructure overhead. It is the same per-token margin across all models — we don't markup more on the cheaper ones.
A concrete example
Take a "personal trader" agent on Claude Haiku-tier doing 50 Telegram messages a day. Average message exchange uses ~600 input tokens (system + soul + context) and ~250 output tokens.
| Item | Per-message | Per-day (×50) | Per-month (×30) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input tokens (Haiku) | ~$0.0003 | ~$0.015 | ~$0.45 |
| Output tokens (Haiku) | ~$0.001 | ~$0.05 | ~$1.50 |
| Hosting margin | ~$0.0005 | ~$0.025 | ~$0.75 |
| Total | ~$0.0018 | ~$0.09 | ~$2.70 |
So roughly $2.70/month for a real, daily-driver Telegram agent on Haiku.
The numbers shift for Sonnet (~5×) and for browser-heavy work (the model has to read more pages, so the input token count climbs). But the structure stays the same: there is no $20-a-month floor that punishes light users.
Why credits, not subscription
Three reasons:
- Light users shouldn't subsidize heavy users. A subscription model only works if you can bin users into tiers. An OpenClaw agent's workload varies by 100× depending on whether it's running a daily summary or a multi-hour research task.
- Anthropic prices in tokens. A subscription is a layered abstraction over the actual unit of cost. We'd rather pass the cost shape through.
- No surprise overage bills. When you run out of credits, the agent pauses. It doesn't keep running on a maxed-out card. (You can opt in to auto-recharge in the billing settings, but it's off by default.)
Auto-recharge
In Settings → Billing you can opt in to auto-recharge: if your balance falls below a threshold, we charge your saved card and top up. It's off by default and uses your existing payment method (we don't ask for a card up-front during signup).
Free starter credit
New accounts get $1.00 of starter credit automatically. On Haiku-tier that's typically a few hundred conversational messages — enough to actually try the product, not a dust-sized teaser. You don't have to add a card to redeem it.
What credits do not cover
- Anthropic API key resale. ShipClaw does not support BYOK. We hold the Anthropic relationship; you buy credits from us. See the BYOK glossary entry for why.
- Custom model providers. Right now ShipClaw is Claude-only. We may add Gemini or GPT later, but nothing on the roadmap promises it.
- Dedicated hosts. All agents run on shared pool nodes. If you need a dedicated container for compliance reasons, email us.