How On-Chain Wallet Top-Ups and Token Billing Work

On AIOZ Stream, you pay by sending AIOZ tokens to a wallet address created for your account. Each deposit becomes USD credit at the AIOZ/USDT rate at the time it lands. Usage for storage, delivery and transcoding is then deducted from that credit every hour.

TL;DR:

• AIOZ Stream bills through a prepaid wallet you fund with AIOZ tokens, with no card, merchant account or monthly invoice.
• Deposits under 0.01 AIOZ are recorded but only credited once your total deposits reach 0.01 AIOZ.
• Your credit equals the tokens you deposit times the AIOZ/USDT rate at deposit, so its USD value is fixed from then on.
• AIOZ exists as a native token on AIOZ Network and as ERC-20 and BEP-20 versions, so confirm the network shown in your dashboard before you send anything.
• The token price affects what your next deposit costs, and the Payments API lets you watch top-ups, daily billing and your balance.

Updated Oct 19, 2026: rechecked against the Payment docs and added a deposit flow diagram, a Payments API section and References. We removed claims the docs don't support about what happens at zero balance.

Why does AIOZ Stream bill through a wallet instead of a card?

A typical SaaS billing stack runs through a card network and a payment processor, both of which take a cut, and the platform needs a merchant account. That works at normal SaaS margins, but it hurts when your unit price is $0.02 per GB.

Take a common card fee of 2.9% plus $0.30. On a $10 top-up, that is about $0.59, close to 6% of the deposit before you store or deliver a single byte. A wallet funded with the platform's own token skips the card network, so there is no processor fee and no chargeback risk.

It also opens the platform to you if you live where card processors don't reach. A token deposit needs a compatible wallet, and no bank relationship.

What happens when you deposit AIOZ tokens?

When you create an AIOZ Stream account, the platform generates a wallet address for you automatically, and you fund it by sending AIOZ tokens to that address. The minimum is 0.01 AIOZ, and smaller deposits are recorded but not credited until your cumulative deposits reach that amount.

Your credit is the number of tokens multiplied by the AIOZ/USDT rate at the time of the deposit, not a daily or monthly rate. From then on, usage is deducted from that balance hourly. Storage costs $0.02 per GB per month, split across the hours of the month. Delivery costs $0.02 per GB, and transcoding costs $0.01 to $0.05 per minute depending on resolution.

You can see every deposit under "Top Up Usage" and a daily breakdown under "History Usage." For the full rates and a worked monthly bill, see our AIOZ Stream pricing guide.

Which AIOZ token should you send?

This is the step to slow down on. AIOZ exists in more than one form: a native token on AIOZ Network's own Layer-1 chain, plus an ERC-20 version on Ethereum and a BEP-20 version on BNB Chain. Each version lives on its own chain, and AIOZ runs a cross-chain bridge to convert between them.

The Payment docs warn that only AIOZ tokens should go to your deposit address, and that sending any other cryptocurrency may mean a permanent loss. They don't say which chain's version your address expects. So check the network shown for your deposit address in your own dashboard before every deposit, even if you have deposited before.

How token prices affect your costs

A dollar in a bank account is still a dollar tomorrow. With token billing, the conversion happens once, at deposit time, so your credit is fixed in USD from that moment. The price moves on the other side: what you pay for the tokens behind your next deposit.

Say you deposit enough AIOZ to cover $500 of usage, and that $500 of credit stays $500 whatever the token does next. If the token rises before your next top-up, the same $500 of credit costs you fewer tokens; if it falls, it costs you more. Your storage, delivery and transcoding rates stay the same either way, so treat token price as a line in your own budget rather than a change in AIOZ Stream's prices.

Keeping your wallet topped up

Usage comes out of a prepaid balance every hour, so you see spend build up during the month instead of in one invoice at the end. The Payment docs don't say what happens when the balance reaches zero. The user API returns a debt field next to balance, which suggests a balance can go negative, but the effect on playback isn't documented.

A few habits keep you clear of that question: check the daily usage history often, and keep a buffer sized to your busiest delivery day rather than your average one. Delivery-heavy workloads are the ones most likely to spike. If you run anything customer-facing, a small script that reads your balance once a day and alerts you below a threshold covers most of the risk.

How AIOZ Stream handles it

We expose your billing data through the Payments API, which uses a Bearer JWT rather than API keys. GET /payment/top_ups lists your deposits. Each record has the on-chain transaction_id, which you can look up on AIOZ Explorer, plus the sending wallet, the credit and a status such as pending, success or failed. This is the request from the Payments API docs:

curl --location 'https://api.aiozstream.network/api/payment/top_ups?limit=25&offset=0&orderBy=desc&sortBy=created_at' \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer your_access_token_here'

The amounts come back as strings to keep their precision, and GET /payment/billings returns daily records of storage, delivery and transcoding with their costs. GET /user/me returns your wallet_address, balance and debt, which is all a balance alert needs. Next step: read the AIOZ Stream Payment docs before your first deposit.

FAQ

Do I need a crypto wallet app to use AIOZ Stream's billing?
You need a wallet that can send AIOZ tokens to the deposit address in your account. The deposit address itself lives in your AIOZ Stream account.

What happens to unspent credit if I stop using AIOZ Stream?
The Payment docs don't cover expiry or refunds, so check the AIOZ Stream service agreement or ask support before you deposit a large amount.

Can I deposit more than once?
Yes. Each deposit is credited at the AIOZ/USDT rate at the time it lands and adds to your balance.

Does my deposit address change?
The wallet is generated when you create your account, so copy the address from your account each time rather than from memory or an old screenshot.

Why doesn't AIOZ Stream accept credit cards?
Card fees eat into per-GB margins, and card processing needs a merchant account and excludes people without banking access. Token billing avoids both, at the cost of token price risk on your next deposit.

Does hourly billing change how much I pay?
No. It changes when usage is deducted, not the rates, and it gives you a daily usage history in return.

Related reading

• AIOZ Stream Pricing for Storage, Delivery and Transcoding
• AIOZ Stream Pricing Explained: A Full Cost Breakdown
• What Is a Web3 Streaming Platform?: on-chain billing as one marker of a web3 platform
• Is Decentralized Video Delivery Cheaper Than a CDN?
• What Is AIOZ DePIN? How Its Nodes Power Video Delivery
• AIOZ Stream Explained: Decentralized Video Infrastructure

References

• AIOZ Stream Docs: Payment: wallet creation, the 0.01 AIOZ minimum, the AIOZ/USDT conversion at deposit, hourly billing and the rates
• AIOZ Stream Docs: Payments API: the top-up, billing and usage endpoints and their fields
• AIOZ Stream Docs: llms-full.txt: the /user/me fields, including balance and debt
• AIOZ Network Docs: Cross-chain bridge: the native, ERC-20 and BEP-20 versions of AIOZ
• Etherscan: AIOZ ERC-20 token: the Ethereum contract