Direct answer
Create a Fikra API account, fund the wallet (M-Pesa, Airtel Money or card in Kenya at KES 133 = $1; USD card elsewhere), then call one OpenAI-compatible key for the routes in the live catalogue. Start with deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017.
The ten African markets at a glance
| Market | Internet users | Penetration | Currency | Checkout | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya | 23.4m | 40.5% | KES | M-Pesa, Airtel Money, card | /kenya |
| Nigeria | 109m | 45.5% | NGN | card | /africa/nigeria |
| South Africa | 51.7m | 79.6% | ZAR | card | /africa/south-africa |
| Egypt | 98.2m | 82.7% | EGP | card | /africa/egypt |
| Ghana | 26.3m | 74.6% | GHS | card | /africa/ghana |
| Uganda | 11.4m | 22.0% | UGX | card | /africa/uganda |
| Tanzania | 20.6m | 29.1% | TZS | card | /africa/tanzania |
| Ethiopia | 29.5m | 21.7% | ETB | card | /africa/ethiopia |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 13.4m | 40.7% | XOF | card | /africa/cote-divoire |
| Morocco | 35.5m | 92.2% | MAD | card | /africa/morocco |
Live numbers as of 2026-11-14
These figures come from the public stats snapshot generated on 2026-11-14 from backend ledgers. They show volume and reliability only; they do not prove any single route wins your workload. Run your own 50 prompts before you move budget.
| Metric | Value | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| All-time requests | 126,617 | 109 days since launch |
| All-time tokens processed | 5,460,329,009 | 2,299,586,240 served from cache |
| Requests, last 30 days | 116,189 | 5,437,162,745 tokens across 82 active routes |
| Registered developers (all time) | 424 | Self-serve accounts, prepaid |
| Live model routes | 31 | Catalogue at /models; machine list at /v1/models |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, last 30 days | 63,202 | cache-hit rate 12.94% |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Economy (free), last 30 days | 8,741 | cache-hit rate 97.36%; free window, not an SLA |
| 30-day uptime | 98.95% | 88,390 health checks; status currently reports attention, re-check /status before production |
What the routes cost right now
Prices are USD per 1M tokens, taken from the live registry snapshot dated 2026-11-14. The KES columns use the checkout rate of KES 133 = $1; your bank or card issuer may add its own conversion margin on top.
The catalogue is authoritative at /v1/models (the OpenAI-compatible listing) and at /models (the public card with context windows and rate limits). Check both before a production commitment; prices move with provider terms.
See the live list from your terminal: curl -s https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1/models -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_FIKRA_KEY"
| Model ID | Input / 1M | Cached input / 1M | Output / 1M | Input KES / 1M | Output KES / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 | $0.05 | $0.0075 | $0.15 | KES 6.65 | KES 19.95 |
| deepseek-v4.1-flash | $0.05 | $0.0075 | $0.15 | KES 6.65 | KES 19.95 |
| qwen3.8-27b | $0.045 | $0.045 | $0.35 | KES 5.98 | KES 46.55 |
| glm-5.3-flash | $0.1875 | $0.0375 | $0.625 | KES 24.94 | KES 83.12 |
| glm-5.3 | $1.225 | $0.225 | $3.85 | KES 162.93 | KES 512.05 |
| kimi-k3 | $2.4375 | $0.24375 | $12.1875 | KES 324.19 | KES 1,620.94 |
How to start from any market
- Create the account at /account/signup and verify the email address.
- Kenyan buyers fund with M-Pesa, Airtel Money or card; every other market funds by USD card. Minimum top-up is $5.
- Set base_url to https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1 and model to deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017.
- Run 50 of your own prompts, then check /stats and the dashboard before scaling.
- Cap the key with a budget; expand only when cost per accepted task is where you need it.
curl https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_FIKRA_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Summarise this ticket in two lines."}]}'
What Fikra does and does not cover
Fikra covers pinned third-party routes behind one key, with public telemetry and prepaid billing. It is not a GPU cloud, model trainer or enterprise governance platform, and self-serve carries no SLA. If you need a contractual commitment, talk to support before you migrate production traffic.
Questions buyers ask
Can I pay from Africa without a foreign credit card?
Not at this checkout. Africa buyers pay by USD card; the Kenya checkout additionally shows M-Pesa and Airtel Money. Mobile money is not available outside Kenya on this checkout, so plan your funding path before onboarding a team.
How much do I need to start?
The minimum top-up is $5. Self-serve plans are prepaid per 30 days: Lite $10, Pro $25, Max $60. Every tier allows 3,000 requests per minute and 250,000 per day. There is no free production tier; free windows are trials.
Which model ID should I use first?
Use deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 for text, code and summarisation at $0.05 input and $0.15 output per 1M tokens. Confirm it is listed at /v1/models before production, then compare against qwen3.8-27b and glm-5.3-flash on your own prompts.
Does Fikra sign an SLA?
No. Self-serve is prepaid and has no SLA. Platform 30-day uptime is published at /status (98.95% over 88,390 checks as of 2026-11-14, with status reported as attention). If you need a contractual commitment, contact support before you sign anything.
Where do I see my spend?
The dashboard shows balance and per-key usage; /stats publishes platform-wide telemetry from the same ledgers. Keep request IDs from production calls if you need to reconcile a charge.