What Are Internal vs. Effective Credits?
Understand the difference between internal and effective USD credits, and how to compare real purchasing power across platforms
When buying "USD credits" from different platforms, you may notice that spending the same amount gives vastly different credit amounts. This doesn't mean one is a better deal — each platform's "USD credits" have different purchasing power.
Internal Credits
Internal credits are the virtual currency units defined by each platform. When you top up, you receive internal credits.
For example: Spend ¥50 to get $100 in internal credits.
Group Ratio
Each group on a platform has a "ratio" that determines how many internal credits are consumed per API call.
- Ratio = 1: Consumes credits equal to the official pricing
- Ratio = 5: Consumes 5x the official pricing (your credits only go 1/5 as far)
Model Multiplier
Platforms may set different pricing for a small number of models compared to the official pricing to adjust the final price (e.g., official price is input $1.5/M, output $2/M, but the platform charges input $3/M, output $4/M). This difference is represented by the "model multiplier".
- Model multiplier = 1 (or not present): Platform uses official pricing
- Model multiplier > 1: Platform pricing is higher than official
In the price table, when a model multiplier exists, the price tooltip formula will show the model multiplier information.
Effective Credits
Effective credits = Internal credits ÷ Group ratio ÷ Model multiplier
In other words, effective credits tell you how much official API-equivalent usage your money actually buys. For example, using the official API directly, $1 USD costs about ¥7 (at the real exchange rate); but through these platforms, you might spend only ¥2.5 for the equivalent of $1 in usage — that's where the savings come from. Effective credits also serve as a unified measure for cross-platform comparison: since each platform defines its own internal credit system, only effective credits allow a direct apples-to-apples comparison.
Example
| Platform | Cost | Internal Credits | Group Ratio | Model Multiplier | Effective Credits | Exchange Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ¥50 | $100 | 5 | 1 | $20 | ¥2.5/USD |
| B | ¥50 | $10 | 1 | 1 | $10 | ¥5/USD |
Although Platform A gives 10x more internal credits than B, after accounting for the ratio, A's effective credits ($20) are only 2x those of B ($10).
Quotas Are Also Affected
Daily limits, weekly limits, etc. are also denominated in internal credits. Divide by the ratio to get the effective value.
For example: Daily limit $10 internal credits, ratio 5 → effective daily limit $2.
How This Site Displays It
In the price overview table:
- Main display: Shows effective credits (for easy cross-platform comparison)
- Tooltip: Shows internal credits, group ratio, and the full calculation