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Apr 8, 2026

Free plan users can now purchase AI Gateway credits

Avatar for Nijiko Yonskai

Nijiko Yonskai

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ngrok.ai is now an all-new experience at app.ngrok.ai, and the dashboard flow described below is winding down. New accounts get $1 in credit to make their first requests before buying anything. Read The new ngrok.ai for the full story.

Most people trying ngrok’s AI Gateway today are on the free plan. You sign up, want to make a request, but don’t have an OpenAI or Anthropic key yet. When we shipped AI Gateway API keys and credits earlier this month, your only option was to go set up provider accounts yourself or upgrade to a pay-as-you-go plan to use ngrok-managed keys.

We wanted to fix that first. Free plan users can now create AI Gateway API Keys and purchase credits directly from the dashboard. Same keys, same credits, same gateway.

The only thing that changed is who can access them. Hobbyist support is still coming.

If you already have an ngrok account, you already have access. If you don’t, signing up is free.

How it works

The setup if you’re on a free plan is the same as a paid plan:

  1. Sign in at app.ngrok.ai (new accounts get $1 in credit)
  2. Add more credits on the Credits page when you need them
  3. Create an access key on the Access Keys page
  4. Point your SDK at https://gateway.ngrok.ai/v1
1import OpenAI from "openai";2 3const client = new OpenAI({4	baseURL: "https://gateway.ngrok.ai/v1",5	apiKey: "ng-xxxxx-g1-xxxxx",6});7 8const response = await client.chat.completions.create({9	model: "gpt-4o",10	messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello!" }],11});

Pricing hasn’t changed either. Provider costs are passed through at cost, and the processing fee is still $0.05 per million tokens for requests using ngrok-managed keys. At current model pricing, $5 goes a long way for testing and development.

BYOK is still free on all plans, same as before.

What’s next

We’re still working through the list from last time: simpler model routing, BYOK through the dashboard, improved streaming handling. We’ll write about those when they ship.

Docs: quickstart, API keys, credits.

Got questions? Reach out.