OpenRouter Credit Purchase Troubleshooting

A practical checklist for the most common failure modes when buying OpenRouter credits: card declines, wrong-network crypto payments, credits that never show up, expired payment links, and confusing errors inside coding tools. Official channels first, in every case.

1. Card declined when buying OpenRouter credits

Card declines on openrouter.ai/settings/credits are usually one of three things:

• International transaction blocks. Many issuing banks block cross-border online charges by default. Call your bank (or use its app) to allow international transactions, then retry.
• 3-D Secure (3DS) verification failures. If a verification pop-up never appears or times out, disable pop-up blockers, retry in a normal (non-incognito) window, and confirm your phone number on file with the bank is current.
• Issuer risk scoring. A first-time charge to an overseas merchant can trip fraud rules even with funds available. A second attempt after approving the charge in your banking app often succeeds.

Try these official paths, in order:

1. A different card — ideally one already used for international online purchases.
2. AliPay — offered directly on the OpenRouter credits page.
3. OpenRouter's native crypto payment (USDC) — choose the crypto option on the credits page; it produces a Coinbase payment page and avoids card rails entirely.

If none of those work and you hold crypto on another network (Solana, USDT, Lightning, Stellar, Base), third-party services such as ROZO Checkout can settle the purchase for you — the fee is shown before you pay.

2. Paid with crypto but sent on the wrong network

This is the most common crypto payment mistake, and it happens because the same token exists on many networks: USDC on Ethereum, Base, Solana, and Polygon are four different assets from the payment processor's point of view. Sending the right token on the wrong network means the payment page never sees your funds.

Confirm the required network before sending

1. On the Coinbase payment page, the network is stated next to the deposit address (for example "USDC on Base"). Read it before copying the address.
2. In your wallet, check which network the withdrawal will use — exchanges in particular default to whichever network is cheapest for them, not the one the payment page asked for.
3. If the network names do not match exactly, stop and re-select.

If you already sent on the wrong network

1. Do not send a second payment. A second transfer does not fix the first and doubles the amount at risk.
2. Copy the transaction hash (txid) from your wallet or exchange withdrawal history.
3. Contact Coinbase Commerce support with the transaction hash, the network you actually used, and the payment page URL. Recovery is handled case by case and is not always possible, so include everything in the first message.

3. Payment sent but OpenRouter credits not arriving

Work through these in order — most cases resolve at step 1 or 2:

1. Check on-chain confirmations. Look up your transaction hash in your wallet or a block explorer. If it is still pending or has zero confirmations, the payment processor cannot see it yet. Wait for it to confirm.
2. Check the Coinbase payment page. Reopen the payment page you paid through. It shows the payment state (detected, confirming, completed). "Detected" or "confirming" means it is still in flight — no action needed.
3. Refresh the OpenRouter credits page. Balances at openrouter.ai/settings/credits do not always update live; a hard refresh often reveals the credit already landed.
4. Check the activity page. openrouter.ai/activity lists credit purchases and usage; a purchase listed there but not reflected in the balance is a display lag, not a lost payment.
5. How long is too long? Most crypto payments credit within a few minutes of confirmation. If more than 30 minutes have passed since your transaction confirmed on-chain and neither the balance nor the activity page shows it, escalate.

Who to contact

• Payment page shows the payment as incomplete or failed → Coinbase Commerce support, with your transaction hash and the payment page URL.
• Payment page shows completed but OpenRouter balance never updates → OpenRouter support via the OpenRouter docs (support contact and Discord are linked there), with the payment page URL and your account email.

4. Coinbase payment link expired

Payment links are one-time and time-limited. An expired link cannot be revived, and any address it displayed should be treated as dead — never send funds to an address from an expired link.

The fix is simply to regenerate: go back to openrouter.ai/settings/credits, start a new crypto purchase, and use the fresh link it produces.

5. "Insufficient credits" errors in Cline, Roo Code, SillyTavern, or Aider

When a tool built on OpenRouter — Cline, Roo Code, SillyTavern, Aider, or similar — returns an insufficient-credits or 402 error, it is almost never a tool configuration problem. The tool is faithfully relaying OpenRouter's response: your account balance is empty or below the cost of the request.

• Check your balance at openrouter.ai/settings/credits.
• If it is zero or near zero, top up — the error clears on the next request, with no changes to the tool's settings, API key, or model selection.
• If the balance is clearly sufficient and the error persists, verify the API key in the tool belongs to the same OpenRouter account you topped up (a stale key from another account is the usual culprit).

6. FAQ

Is there a minimum credit purchase?

OpenRouter sets its own minimum purchase amounts and they can change — check the purchase form at openrouter.ai/settings/credits or the OpenRouter docs for the current figure.

Do OpenRouter credits expire?

Credit expiry policy is defined by OpenRouter's own terms — see the OpenRouter docs for the current policy rather than relying on third-party summaries.