AI API billed only in rupees — no international card

Why your AI bill shouldn't move if your usage doesn't

Pay an international AI provider directly and you generally need a card capable of foreign billing — and the rupee total on your statement depends on your bank's billing rate and cross-border handling fee that day, not just on the provider's own price. Run the exact same workload two months in a row and the number on your statement can still differ. unoblox removes that step: you pay unoblox directly, in rupees, at a fixed per-model rate, invoiced monthly from an Indian entity. Nothing to reconcile.

What actually changes

Step	Paying a provider directly	Billed through unoblox
Payment method	Needs a card that supports foreign billing	Any Indian method — UPI, netbanking, Razorpay
Extra fee	Bank/network cross-border handling fee	None — you're paying an Indian entity
Monthly total for identical usage	Can shift with your bank's day-to-day billing rate	Fixed per-token rate, same formula every month
Reconciling the invoice	Check your statement against that day's rate	Nothing to reconcile — the invoice is the number

A concrete example

Say your team runs 30M input tokens and 10M output tokens a month on Qwen3 235B-A22B:

(30 × ₹9.07) + (10 × ₹55.44) = ₹272.10 + ₹554.40 = ₹826.50, every month, for the same usage.

Paying a provider directly for equivalent usage, the rupee figure on your card statement depends on your bank's billing rate and fee that day — something your card issuer controls, not the provider. The issue isn't that direct billing is inherently pricier; it's that the number isn't fully yours to predict when a foreign-billing step sits between you and the invoice. Routing the same call through unoblox removes that step, so the rupee number is the one your model's published rate actually implies.

Switching takes two lines

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(api_key="ub-gw-YOUR_KEY", base_url="https://api.unoblox.ai/v1")

Streaming, tool calls, and JSON mode behave exactly as they do calling a provider directly — only the base URL and key change.

What stays predictable

• One published rupee rate per model at /models — no daily movement.
• Rate changes announced in advance, never silently, and never applied retroactively to usage you've already been invoiced for.
• One monthly invoice, itemized by model, from an Indian entity.
• GST added as a clear line item, with input-tax credit claimable for registered businesses.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an international card to use unoblox? No. UPI, netbanking, and Razorpay all work — no card that supports foreign billing required.

Why can the same usage cost a different rupee amount some months when paying a provider directly? Because a bank or card network sits between you and that provider, and its billing rate and cross-border fee move independently of the provider's own price. Billing through unoblox removes that middle step, so the rate you see is the rate you pay.

Are unoblox's rupee prices fixed forever? They're reviewed occasionally as underlying provider pricing changes, always with advance notice — not something that moves day to day the way a bank's billing rate does.

Does the listed price include GST? No, prices on /models are pre-tax. GST is itemized separately on your monthly invoice and is claimable as input-tax credit if you're GST-registered.

Can I still use the same models I was calling directly before? Yes — GPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Qwen, Llama, and more are available through the same OpenAI-compatible request format. Only the base URL and key change.

What if I need to report AI spend to a global parent company? Your unoblox invoice is one fixed rupee number per month — simple to fold into a consolidated report, without also having to explain why identical usage produced a different number last month.

Get started in rupees → https://unoblox.ai/sign-in