Plain terms for buying from how.is, whether you are a person with a card or an agent paying per call. By paying, you agree to them.
Per-call answers from the how.is API at the prices listed on /v1 and /prices. You pay either by prepaid credit (card, via Stripe: you get an API key holding a USD balance) or per call with x402 (USDC on Base). Prices can change; a call is always charged at the price in force when it is made.
A call is charged only when it is delivered. If a paid call fails on our side the charge is reversed automatically, and an x402 payment is not settled. Free samples are never charged. Each key has a daily spend cap (default $10.00); past it, calls stop until 00:00 UTC rather than draining your balance.
Unused prepaid balance is refundable on request within 30 days of purchase, back to the card that paid. Balance already spent on delivered calls is not refundable. x402 payments are final once settled on-chain, because each one pays for a single delivered answer. If you think a charge is wrong, write to us and we will check the ledger for your key.
If you tick Refill this amount every month, your card is charged the same amount
each month, starting at purchase, and each payment adds that amount to your key. Stop it anytime with
POST https://how.is/topup/cancel and your key as Authorization: Bearer <key>,
or by replying to any receipt. Cancelling stops future charges; balance already added stays yours, and each
monthly payment is refundable under the same 30-day rule for its unused credit.
Prepaid credit is not a deposit, earns no interest, cannot be moved to another key, and has no cash value except through a refund as above. Keep your API key secret: anyone holding it can spend its balance.
Answers describe public internet records (DNS, WHOIS/RDAP, TLS certificates, blocklists, web pages) at the moment of the call. They are provided as-is, without a warranty that they are complete or current. Do not use the service to break the law, attack the hosts you look up, or resell it as a bulk mirror. We may rate-limit or close keys that do.
For refunds, billing questions, or anything else, reply to your Stripe receipt or write to the support address shown on it.