Request
Response
Response headers
Every response carries the standard rate-limit headers:Errors
Unlike the transcript endpoints,
/api/balance does not return 403 no_credits for empty accounts — it is the canonical way to check whether you should top up before issuing a transcript request.
Common patterns
Pre-flight check before a batch job
Pre-flight check before a batch job
Call
/api/balance once at the start of a batch of 1,000 URLs. If credits < 1000, fail fast rather than burning through credits mid-run and getting partial results.Validate a key in CI
Validate a key in CI
Use
/api/balance as your smoke test in deploy pipelines — a 200 confirms the key is valid and points at a real account. Cheaper and faster than POSTing a real video URL.Surface remaining credits in your UI
Surface remaining credits in your UI
Cache the response for ~30 seconds in your app shell. Refresh after every successful transcript call (which already returns
credits in its response body) so users see the deduction immediately.