API Documentation

CheapTokens.ai sells discounted Venice.ai API credits with transparent, real-time pricing. You get a real Venice INFERENCE API key and call Venice's API directly. Full Venice API docs at docs.venice.ai.

How It Works

CheapTokens.ai sells discounted Venice.ai API credits using time-decay dynamic pricing. When you purchase credits, we generate a real Venice INFERENCE API key for you via Venice's key management API. You then call Venice's API directly — we are not a proxy.

Flow

Buy credits on CheapTokens.ai (choose your credit amount)
Receive a Venice API key with your credit usage limit
Call the Venice API at api.venice.ai/api/v1
Credits expire at midnight UTC. A key purchased on January 15th is valid until January 16th 00:00:00 UTC.

Authentication

Use the Venice API key you received from CheapTokens.ai in the Authorization header as a Bearer token.

Header
Authorization: Bearer your_venice_key

Your key has a credit usage limit set by your purchase. Venice tracks usage automatically. Credits expire at midnight UTC.

Base URL

Your key works directly with Venice's API. Use their OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

https://api.venice.ai/api/v1

If you are using the OpenAI SDK, set the base_url (Python) or baseURL (Node.js) configuration option. See the full Venice API docs for all available parameters.

Python
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your_venice_key",
    base_url="https://api.venice.ai/api/v1"
)

Node.js
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: 'your_venice_key',
  baseURL: 'https://api.venice.ai/api/v1',
});

Chat Completions

Create a chat completion. The request format is identical to the OpenAI Chat Completions API.

cURL
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_venice_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-45",
    "messages": [
      {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
      {"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France?"}
    ],
    "max_tokens": 256,
    "venice_parameters": {"disable_thinking": true}
  }'

Response
{
  "id": "chatcmpl-abc123",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "model": "claude-sonnet-45",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "The capital of France is Paris."
      },
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 25,
    "completion_tokens": 8,
    "total_tokens": 33
  }
}

Models

Venice offers a variety of open-source and proprietary models. Use the models endpoint to list available options.

Request
GET https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/models
Authorization: Bearer your_venice_key

Available models change over time. Use GET /models to fetch the live catalog instead of hardcoding IDs in your app. See the full list at docs.venice.ai.

Security & Audits

The underlying credit supply and relay flow has an independent security review available. The public product sells Venice.ai API credits; this audit covers part of the backing infrastructure.

DIEM Relay Security Review v1.0

Auditor: Bretzel
Date: 2026-03-13
Findings: 0 critical, 0 high, 1 medium, 1 low, 4 informational

Notable items in this review include one medium-severity operational issue, one low-severity accounting/dust issue, and several hardening recommendations. Customer-facing CheapTokens keys remain direct Venice API keys, not a CheapTokens proxy.

Read the audit PDF

Streaming

Set "stream": true to receive responses as Server-Sent Events (SSE).

cURL Example
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_venice_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-45",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    "stream": true,
    "venice_parameters": {"disable_thinking": true}
  }'

Rate Limits

Rate limits are managed by Venice based on your API key type. Your key has a credit usage limit set at purchase time.

Limit	Details
Credit usage	Per your purchase
Key expiry	Midnight UTC
Request limits	Set by Venice

Error Codes

Venice uses standard HTTP status codes. Error responses include a JSON body with details.

Code	Description
401	Invalid, expired, or revoked API key
402	Insufficient credits / payment required
403	Not entitled / forbidden model or feature
429	Rate limit exceeded
500	Internal server error

Next: Getting Started →

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