Glossary
What the terms in the dashboard and these docs actually mean.
Model stages
The Stage column in the model list tells you how far along a model is.
| Stage | Meaning | Safe to use? |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Generally available. Price and behaviour changes are announced in advance on News | ✅ Yes, in production |
| Beta | Available, but the interface may still change | ✅ If you can follow changes |
| Alpha | For evaluation. Mostly free, and may change without notice | 🧪 Experiments and evaluation |
| Deprecated | Not recommended for new work. Keeps working; move to the successor when you can | ⚠️ Plan your migration |
| Discontinued / Sunset | No longer served. The end date is announced beforehand on News and in the Sunset response header | ❌ Migrate to the successor |
When an upstream provider retires a model, we announce it before we stop serving it — nothing disappears without warning.
AP and TAP (credits)
- AP (AICU Points) — prepaid credit. 1 USD = 10,000 AP (1 AP = $0.0001). Purchased AP is valid for 24 months
- TAP (Trial AP) — trial credit granted automatically, for example when you create an account
- Every API response reports what it consumed in the
X-AICU-AP-Costheader
When billing starts
"Billing starts" means that once the free evaluation period ends, usage is deducted from your AP balance.
If your balance runs out, the API simply returns 402 — no invoice arrives and nothing is charged to a card automatically. The platform is prepaid. Free tiers, the signup bonus and the first-use bonus all continue to work after billing starts.
How prices change
- Revisions land in a weekly slot: Wednesdays at 05:00 UTC
- Increases are announced at least 7 days ahead on News
- Decreases take effect immediately
- Upcoming revisions appear in the dashboard under "Scheduled price changes" and under the
pricingtag on News
API keys: identifier vs. full key
- The full key (
aicu_live_plus about 32 characters) is shown once, when you create it. We store only a SHA-256 hash, so there is no way to display or copy it later — not through the dashboard, and not by us. That is the point: a leaked database does not leak your keys - The identifier shown in the dashboard (roughly the first 15 characters) is a label for telling your keys apart. Use it when matching log lines or contacting support
- Lost a full key? Create a new one and revoke the old one
Revoking vs. deleting a key
| Action | Effect | Reversible |
|---|---|---|
| Revoke | Calls with that key start returning 401 immediately | No — create a new key |
| Delete | Removes an already-revoked key from the list (tidying up) | No |
Deleting a key does not erase usage history or billing records. You cannot delete an active key directly: revoke first, then delete.
Something still unclear? Get in touch.