Free Run Allowance

Free Run Allowance

Every account gets 100 free BYOK runs per UTC day, every day, no sign-up, no opt-in. The allowance is the permanent successor to the time-boxed 2,500-lifetime promo that ran until 2026-10-01.

What counts as a free run

A free run is any run that uses your own credentials (BYOK) — your credentials are the only payment source for the API provider. The platform fronts no provider cost on a free run because you do; the allowance only applies when the API provider is being paid by you, not the platform.

A run that resolves to a Builder credential (the Builder set a shared API key on the workflow and the slot resolution picks it because no Producer credential exists for that type) is treated like a Builder-funded run: it consumes a discount but the Builder still fronts the provider cost. To make those runs truly free, supply your own credential for the type so resolution picks you instead of the Builder.

Runs that do not count toward the free allowance:

• Builder-funded runs — agents that use the Builder's shared API key (multiplier > 0). The Builder fronts the cost and charges you back; the allowance does not double-discount.
• Trial runs — the Builder sponsors these; you pay nothing.
• x402-paid runs — you sign an EIP-3009 authorization in your browser and a facilitator broadcasts it and pays the gas. The allowance does not cover x402.
• Resumed runs — a Send-and-Wait resume is billable in full.
• Runs paid from your prepaid balance — when you choose to use your prepaid deposit rather than pay-as-you-go, the run is not free.

Scheduled runs do count toward the allowance as long as they use your BYOK credentials. The check is per-execution, not per-trigger.

How the counter works

The allowance is a day-bucketed counter in your account storage, keyed by (wallet, UTC day). The day resets at 00:00 UTC, not at midnight in your local timezone. A run that crosses 00:00 UTC is charged against the day it started.

• 100 free runs are granted per UTC day.
• Unused runs do not roll over — a quiet day does not give you 200 the next day.
• The counter shows on your producer dashboard as runsRemainingToday.
• Each execution page says how many free runs you have left after that run.

What happens at 0

When the counter reaches zero, on-demand runs continue to work normally — they just cost your prepaid balance or your credit card on-ramp. The allowance is a discount, not a cap. You cannot exceed your daily free allowance; you simply stop getting the discount once it is exhausted.

Scheduled agents behave differently. A scheduled agent activated under the allowance waiver with no Agent balance still draws from your daily free counter. On the 101st fire in a UTC day, the run falls through to the budget rail; if the budget rail is also dry (zero Agent balance), EdgeRPC.runScheduledWorkflow deactivates the schedule with status insufficient-budget. The schedule does not fall back to your prepaid balance or card on-ramp for autonomous fires. To resume, top up the agent's Agent balance and press Reactivate from the dashboard.

The allowance has a platform-wide daily breaker that counts grants only (not denials). On a heavy day the platform can refuse new grants once the global cap is hit, but that affects only the granting of free runs — paid runs always work. The breaker counts webhook allowances only; scheduled runs consume their per-wallet quota but do not increment the global counter. A heavy scheduled workload can therefore exceed the configured platform-wide cap while the breaker still reports capacity remaining.

Why scheduled runs are included

The allowance covers any BYOK run, including ones you schedule. Scheduled runs that use your credentials get the same free-run treatment as on-demand ones, because they cost the platform nothing extra — the API provider charges you the same either way.

If a scheduled run would use a platform-funded credential (no BYOK available), the run skips the free allowance entirely. Free-run logic is BYOK-first: there is no free run that costs the platform anything.

Frequently asked

Does the allowance work in trial mode? The allowance and the trial are separate systems. A trial run is Builder-funded and free regardless of the allowance counter.

What if I run out at 23:55 UTC? The next free run is the following day at 00:00 UTC. There is no grace period; the bucket boundary is sharp.

Can I see the counter from the API? Yes — GET /api/v1/users/:address/stats returns runsRemainingToday for the current UTC day. The MCP equivalent is in the user-stats tool.

Is the allowance per wallet or per account? Per wallet (the address you sign in with). Two wallets under the same person get two separate 100/day allowances.