Anonymous AI Chat API • Live on Bitcoin mainnet
Pay-per-call AI chat for agents and scripts.
Use a funded session to send a prompt, get a concise answer, and keep your own provider credentials out of the client. Built for agents, scripts, browser tools, and lightweight private AI workflows.
50 sats / call
5 per day / token
POST /api/ai-chat
What It Does
ArkAPI anonymous AI chat gives you a simple prompt-response API behind a funded bearer token. It is useful for agentic workflows, quick explanations, lightweight drafting, and private utility AI tasks where you do not want to expose a separate provider key to every script or browser client.
- Anonymous session-based access
- Simple JSON request and response shape
- Usage metadata in every successful response
- Live on Bitcoin mainnet
Limits
AI chat is intentionally priced and rate-limited above the lightweight utility APIs.
- Cost: 50 sats per call
- Rate limit: 5 requests per day per token
- Exact repeat prompts can return faster through ArkAPI caching
- Current deployment is Bitcoin mainnet
Example Request
curl -X POST https://arkapi.dev/api/ai-chat \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ak_your_token" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"prompt":"How is Ark different from Lightning?"}' | jq
Use a funded token from the Fund page. The same request body also works from agents that consume /openapi.json.
Example Body
{
"prompt": "How is Ark different from Lightning?"
}
Optional fields
- messages for multi-message chat input with prior user and assistant turns
Example Response
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"answer": "Ark uses coordinated rounds and virtual outputs, while Lightning uses payment channels between participants.",
"model": "arkapi-chat-v1",
"usage": {
"prompt_tokens": 18,
"completion_tokens": 33,
"total_tokens": 51
}
},
"cost_sats": 50,
"balance_remaining": 1400,
"response_ms": 980,
"endpoint": "/api/ai-chat"
}
When To Use It
Use this endpoint when you want an AI response inside an automation without provisioning provider accounts or embedding long-lived model keys in clients.
- Agent tools that need quick natural-language reasoning
- Small apps that need a paid AI action without account signup
- Security, domain, or Bitcoin workflows that need a short human-readable explanation
- Prototype workflows where Bitcoin payment plumbing is part of the test
Good Prompt Examples
- How is Ark different from Lightning?
- Explain CVE-2024-3400 in plain English.
- Rewrite this paragraph to be clearer and shorter.
- Summarize the main ideas in four bullet points.
For broader platform usage, see the main docs and the live catalog.
Start Calling It
Create a funded session, copy the bearer token, and call POST /api/ai-chat. Failed paid calls are refunded to the session balance automatically.
Discovery
ArkAPI publishes machine-readable discovery metadata for agents and toolchains.