Guide updated
Implemented against official GraphQL and CLI references; live-account verification is pending. Signed-in key creation, read-only/team permissions, and balance reconciliation have not been tested. Automated tests are not live verification.
- Required credentials
- Runpod API Key
- Monitoring currency
- USD · US dollars
- What is monitored
- Account credit balance
- A fixed POST to https://api.runpod.io/graphql reads only myself { clientBalance }. The value is already USD, shared by the key's prepaid account across Pods, Serverless and storage. It is not a project, Pod, endpoint or individual key wallet.
How to check your Runpod balance manually
- Sign in to the Runpod personal or team account that pays for your workloads.
- Open Billing and read USD account Credits, not hourly spending, spendLimit or host earnings.
- Purchase on Runpod only if needed and confirm posting. Enterprise post-paid accounts use billing statements, not this prepaid balance.
Connect Runpod to Quota Monitor
1. Identify your paying account and billing model
Sign in to Runpod and open Billing below. Confirm that the selected personal or team account pays for your application. If team billing is inaccessible, ask an existing Billing/Admin member to check it without upgrading your role.
Check: a USD prepaid balance is visible for that account. Enterprise post-paid accounts do not show this balance and are outside this guide. No deposit or team upgrade is required to connect monitoring.
2. Open API Keys and create a dedicated key
In the same account, open Credentials → API Keys → Create API Key. Name the key Quota Monitor to distinguish it from application keys.
Check: you are on API Keys, not S3 API Keys, SSH keys or a login-session page. Leave production keys unchanged. Signed-in screens and team authorization still need live testing.
3. Select read-only access and avoid legacy keys
Choose Read Only, then Create. Do not choose All. Read Only may read more than balances. If your team requires Restricted, have an existing administrator configure the documented minimum access without enabling inference or write permissions.
Check: this is a newly created dedicated key. Legacy keys from before 2024-11-11 may still make paid AI API calls despite read-only GraphQL. Real balance access with the new permissions remains to be verified.
4. Copy and securely save the full key
Click the newly generated key to copy it and store it in a password manager. Use only the complete secret, without Bearer, quotes, spaces or line breaks—not its name or masked suffix.
Check: the full value is saved securely, not in chat, screenshots or support feedback. Create a new dedicated key if it is lost; never substitute a browser Cookie or login token.
5. Add Runpod inside your project
In Quota Monitor, open your project → add provider connection → add new connection. Select Runpod (USD), enter a recognizable connection name, paste the full key into the Runpod API Key password field, and save.
Check: no API URL, Pod ID, Team ID or Key ID is needed, and USD is fixed. Credentials are encrypted and only the last four characters are displayed. For MCP, use the secure entry link rather than sending a secret to an agent.
6. Sync and compare the official balance
Wait for first sync or select Query latest balance. Confirm the successful query time changed, then compare Billing for the same account. A clientBalance of 24.5 should display $24.5, not $0.245 or an hourly rate.
Check: account, currency and time match. Multiple projects sharing an account show shared funds, not additive wallets. Live reconciliation is pending; report only redacted amounts, timestamps and error codes.
7. Add Credits on Runpod when needed
Select Open provider on the card and recheck the Billing account. An authorized payer can choose a dollar amount or Other, review the purchase, and complete payment directly on Runpod.
Check: payment has posted before syncing again. Automatic top-up is not required. Our GraphQL request uses POST but is a read-only query, with no mutation, paid invocation or payment operation.
8. Replace or revoke your dedicated key
Create a new key with the same permissions, add a replacement connection and verify sync. Remove all project references to the old connection, delete it, then find its dedicated key in Runpod Credentials → API Keys, select the trash icon and confirm Revoke Key.
Check: application keys are untouched. Removing a project connection does not revoke its provider key. Plan a replacement window if connection slots are full; to disable temporarily, use that key's toggle and confirm Yes on Runpod.
What Quota Monitor reads from Runpod
- For prepaid accounts with a Billing balance only. Enterprise post-paid billing is unsupported. This query does not identify the billing model; confirm your account type first.
- We do not read hostBalance, payment details or email. Hourly spendLimit is not a monthly cap. Do not estimate funds from hourly spending, deduct usage again, or sum the same account across projects.
- This is the latest successfully queried value, not a zero-latency guarantee. Zero and negative values are preserved; failed reads do not invent balances. Positive funds do not guarantee resource availability.
- Credits are not withdrawable cash. We do not separately monitor promotions or cost centers, start/stop resources, top up, or change payment methods and limits.
- The dashboard shows the latest successful snapshot. Manual refresh queries the provider again but cannot eliminate upstream billing delays. An old balance is not a new result after a failed query.
Runpod FAQ and troubleshooting
- Why do I get 401 or a credential-format error?
- Check the full API key, owning account and disabled/revoked state. Remove Bearer and line breaks. S3 keys, SSH keys, Cookies, key names and masked values do not work. Replace a lost secret with a new dedicated key.
- What if I get 403 or a GraphQL error?
- Ask an existing administrator to verify the account and Read Only query access. Billing members can view finances while Basic/Dev members cannot, but roles do not automatically prove a key's permissions. Do not switch to All. HTTP 200 can contain GraphQL errors; we reject partial data and retain the old successful snapshot.
- Why is balance different from hourly spend or spendLimit?
- clientBalance is USD account funds. spendLimit is an hourly cap and currentSpendPerHr is an hourly cost, neither remaining money. 24.5 means $24.5: no division by 100 and no repeated usage deduction.
- Why do projects match, or why is enterprise balance missing?
- Prepaid account Credits are shared, not separate project wallets. Do not add duplicates. Enterprise post-paid accounts have no prepaid balance and are unsupported; do not interpret a returned zero as enterprise debt.
- What if a top-up is missing, or sync fails with 429?
- Check the paying account, official posting and last successful time; retry later for 429. Empty/error data is not zero, and failures retain old balances. Billing has an update cycle, and funds do not guarantee a workload can launch. Share only redacted errors and times, never keys.
Official Runpod references
- Official reference · graphql-spec.runpod.io/(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · docs.runpod.io/runpodctl/reference/runpodctl-user(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · docs.runpod.io/get-started/credentials(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · docs.runpod.io/accounts-billing/billing(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · docs.runpod.io/accounts-billing/manage-accounts(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · docs.runpod.io/accounts-billing/post-paid-billing(opens in a new tab)
- Official reference · github.com/runpod/runpodctl/blob/main/internal/api/graphql.go(opens in a new tab)
Prepared by Quota Monitor, not an official provider tutorial. Interfaces and permissions may change; check official pages. Verification is limited to the scope stated here.