How can you use an AI API from Turkey without a credit card?

In short: If you have no card, or your card is blocked for foreign online payments, use an API service that takes top-ups by bank transfer. On the Wiozen API you sign up, verify your email, create a key starting with sk-gw- in the dashboard and top up at least $5 by bank transfer. The amount becomes a dollar balance, and each request takes its token cost out of it. New accounts get a $0.15 trial balance with no card required.

Why is the card a problem?

Most foreign AI providers tie an API account to a card and charge it in US dollars. If you don't have a card, if your card can't pay foreign websites, or if you'd rather not put a personal card on a work tool, this is where you get stuck. Even when the card works, your statement shows the bank's exchange rate and, with some banks, a foreign transaction fee. Both depend on the bank.

You have two options. One is to get a card or virtual card from your bank that is open to foreign payments. The other is to use a service that accepts Turkish lira bank transfers and gives you the same models through one API. This guide walks through the second option.

How does a bank-transfer API service work?

It works like a prepaid phone line. You load a balance first, and each request you send to the API takes the cost of its tokens out of that balance. There is no subscription or monthly fee, so a month with no requests costs nothing.

On the Wiozen API the balance is kept in US dollars and you pay in Turkish lira. When you create a top-up request, the lira amount is calculated at the rate of that moment and shown on the request; it stays fixed even if the rate moves later. Topped-up balance does not expire, and the same balance works in the other Wiozen apps linked to your account.

Step by step: account, key, balance

1. Sign up and verify your email

Create a Wiozen account and confirm your address with the link in the email. After verification your account gets a $0.15 trial balance. The trial is given once per account and asks for no card details. It's a small amount, but enough to test your setup: a short message with 2,000 input tokens and 1,000 output tokens on wiozen-anthropic costs $0.0003, so the trial covers about 500 messages of that size.

2. Create an API key

Open the Keys page in the API dashboard and create a new key. Keys start with sk-gw-. You can create a separate key for each tool and give a key a spending cap. When a cap is reached only that key stops; your other keys keep working.

3. Top up by bank transfer

On the Balance page of your account, enter the dollar amount you want to add. The minimum is $5. When you create the request, the page shows the recipient name, the IBAN and a reference code that is unique to you.

1. From your bank's mobile app or online banking, send the lira amount shown on the request to the IBAN shown.
2. Put only the reference code in the transfer description. That code is how your payment is matched to your request; without it, matching takes longer.
3. Once the payment shows up and is approved, the amount is added to your dollar balance and you get an email.

Approval is done by hand, so the balance does not arrive the second you send the transfer. Your pending request is listed on the Balance page, and you can cancel it there if you change your mind.

4. Use the key

Any OpenAI-compatible tool needs two values: the address https://api.wiozen.com/v1 and your key. A quick test from the terminal:

curl https://api.wiozen.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-gw-..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "wiozen-anthropic", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]}'

If you get a reply, you're set. For Python, JavaScript and ready-made tools, see the guide to connecting an OpenAI-compatible API.

How does the balance go down, and what happens when it runs out?

Each request is charged for its input tokens, cached input tokens and output tokens. Prices are listed in dollars per 1 million tokens on the Models page. At the $0.0003 message size above, $5 covers roughly 16,600 messages. A more expensive model brings that down: the same message on claude-sonnet-5-5 costs $0.0098, so $5 covers about 510 of them. The full arithmetic is in the cost guide.

When the balance runs out the API returns 429. Once a new top-up is approved you carry on with the same key; nothing needs to change. Failed requests are not charged. If a single request costs more than what's left, the difference is taken from your next top-up.

The Usage page in the dashboard lists every request with its token counts and dollar cost, so you can follow your spending without waiting for a statement.

Before you top up

• Topped-up balance is not refunded. There are two exceptions (we end the service, or you don't accept a price increase), both described in the Refund and Balance Policy.
• There is no uptime guarantee. Some models are served through third-party sources; when a source fails, the request moves to a fallback and a failed request is not charged.
• Only the model names on the Models page are accepted. Any other name returns 400.
• Start small. Connect your tool with the trial balance, use it for a few days, check your spending on the Usage page, then top up what you actually need.

Frequently asked questions

If you want to try it, create an account. Once your email is verified you get a $0.15 trial balance and can send your first request without entering a card.

Create your account

More guides: How do you connect an OpenAI-compatible API to a tool you already use? · How do you calculate the cost of an AI API? · How do you get AI to write and publish articles in WordPress automatically? · How do you find blog topics from RSS feeds and Google Trends? · Does AI-written content show up on Google and in AI answers?