Trust and rules
Cheap routing asks a fair question: what happens to my prompts and my money. These are the rules, stated one at a time.
01Open-weight models only
The catalog lists open-weight models under their own licenses. Closed models are never resold without written permission from the provider.
02One region per key
Every key is pinned to us or eu, and its jobs only ever run on hosts inside that region. A backstop, when used, is in the same region and labelled on the receipt.
03Prompts are encrypted and then deleted
Payloads are AES-256-GCM encrypted in transit and at rest, and deleted within 60 seconds of the job completing.
04Nothing is written to the host's disk
The reference agent holds each payload in memory only, streams the answer back, and keeps no copy.
05Hosts sign a no-logging agreement
Every device operator signs the current agreement version before it can claim a single job. Signing happens on the device page and is version-stamped.
06Hosts opt in and stay in control
A machine owner chooses which models their device runs, sees every job it ran without any content, can pause in one click, and can leave at any time while keeping unpaid earnings.
07A receipt on every call
Region, device class or backstop, first-token time against the promise, total time, tokens, price and the list-price equivalent are recorded for every call.
08Late or failed calls are refunded automatically
A sweep running every minute refunds any job that missed its promised first-token or total time, or failed after a charge. You do not have to ask.
09Balances are held apart from revenue
Prepaid balances are kept in a separate account from operating revenue.
10Unused balance is refunded if the service ends
If Cheap Tokens ever shuts down, unused balance is refunded. Top-ups are refundable on request at any time from the billing page.
The no-logging agreement each host signs is shown in full on the device page before signing. Read it while adding a device. Refund rules for plans and top-ups are on the refunds page.