Vibe Coding in India: Get LLM API Access Without an International Card

The API key problem for Indian developers

AI coding tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf are changing how developers write software. But many of these tools let you bring your own LLM API key — and getting those keys usually means signing up with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google and paying in USD with an international credit card.

For a large portion of Indian developers, that is a blocker. Domestic debit cards get declined, international transaction fees add up, and managing separate accounts for three or four providers is painful.

One key for all models, paid in INR

AICredits gives you a single OpenAI-compatible API key that routes to GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, Gemini 2.0 Flash, DeepSeek, and Mistral. You top up a prepaid wallet in INR via UPI — Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or any net banking app — and the wallet balance gets deducted as you use models.

In any tool that lets you set a custom base URL, point it at https://api.aicredits.in/v1 and paste your AICredits sk- key. The tool thinks it is talking to OpenAI and everything works.

Using AICredits with vibe coding tools

Claude Code:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-your-aicredits-key"
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.aicredits.in/v1"

Cursor / Windsurf / Continue (OpenAI-compatible tools):

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-aicredits-key"
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.aicredits.in/v1"

Most open-source coding assistants use the OpenAI SDK under the hood — setting these two variables is all you need.

In a .env file:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-aicredits-key
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.aicredits.in/v1

How much does it actually cost?

A typical coding session with 50 exchanges — each with a 2,000-token context and 500-token response — uses roughly 125,000 input tokens and 25,000 output tokens.

| Model | Cost per session | Cost per month (daily sessions) | |-------|-----------------|--------------------------------| | GPT-4o Mini | ₹3.17 | ~₹95 | | GPT-4o | ₹31.70 | ~₹950 | | Claude 3.5 Haiku | ₹13.45 | ~₹400 | | Claude 3.5 Sonnet | ₹49.00 | ~₹1,470 |

Most developers start with a ₹200 top-up to get a realistic sense of their actual usage before deciding how much to load.