Pricing & limits

Most channels are free: you bring your own token or number, or run on an anonymous sandbox key. A few channels ride Caspian's own network and are billed at cost, drawn from a credit balance. Your first sign-in adds $100 in free credit.

The model

There are two kinds of channel, and the difference is who owns the pipe.

• Free channels: email, Telegram, Discord, Slack, and SMS/WhatsApp on your own Twilio or Telnyx number. These need no signup: mint an anonymous sandbox key and go. Where a provider charges (your own Twilio SMS, for example), that bill is between you and them; Caspian just relays.
• Paid channels: X, WhatsApp on Caspian's Meta number, and iMessage. These run on infrastructure Caspian operates, so each message has a real per-message cost. It is billed at cost and drawn from your credit balance. Paid channels unlock after a one-time sign-in.

Free vs paid

Per-message cost of paid channels

These are the provider costs the gateway passes through, per message. There is no markup and no monthly fee. You are billed only for what you send and receive on a paid channel.

Starting free, upgrading later

You do not need an account to build. Mint an anonymous sandbox key and every free channel works immediately:

curl -s -X POST https://api.trycaspianai.com/v1/projects/sandbox \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"name":"my-agent"}'

Connecting a free channel is one call; a paid channel is the same shape but needs a signed-in key. The handler never changes.

from caspian_sdk import CommClient

client = CommClient()                          # reads COMM_API_KEY from env / .env

# Free: works on a sandbox key, no billing
client.connect_email()
client.connect_telegram(bot_token="123:abc")

# Paid: needs a signed-in key; billed at cost from your $100 credit
client.connect_x(
    access_token="...",
    access_secret="...",
    user_id="...",
)

import { CommClient } from "caspian-sdk";

const client = new CommClient();               // reads COMM_API_KEY from env / .env

// Free: works on a sandbox key, no billing
await client.connectEmail();
await client.connectTelegram({ botToken: "123:abc" });

// Paid: needs a signed-in key; billed at cost from your $100 credit
await client.connectX({
  accessToken: "...",
  accessSecret: "...",
  userId: "...",
});

To move from a sandbox key to a signed-in one, run the device sign-in and pass your current key so everything you built carries over. See Authentication for the full flow.

Rate limits

Rate limits are enforced per API key, not per channel or per account. A sandbox key and a signed-in key each get their own budget, so load on one project never throttles another.

Next steps