Direct answer
Use Fikra API in Kenya when one key, one prepaid wallet and pinned routes beat opening separate provider accounts. Yes. Kenyan buyers fund the wallet with M-Pesa, Airtel Money or card; the minimum top-up is $5, crediting KES 133 to the USD wallet (KES 136.99 charged after the 3% processing fee). Set base_url to https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1 and call deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017.
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 |
What the Kenya market looks like
Internet users in Kenya: 23.4m. Penetration: 40.5%. Development hub: Nairobi. Kenya is the benchmark market for local payments, cards and mobile money at the same checkout.
The buyer problem here is specific. Safaricom and Airtel wallet holders want M-Pesa or Airtel Money at checkout, while the Fikra wallet credits in USD. The Kenya question is settlement friction, not model quality.
Buyers arrive with one of three jobs: get predictable wallet spend before the invoice lands, reach pinned routes without foreign-card drama, or put one audit trail over several model families. The live numbers above and your own 50-prompt test answer all three better than any rate card.
Which route to test first
Match the first pilot to one workload, one budget cap and one owner. Expand only after /stats shows the cost per accepted task you expected.
| Workload | Route to start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Support replies and summarisation | deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 | $0.05 input, $0.15 output per 1M tokens; 63,202 requests in the last 30 days |
| Code review and fixes | glm-5.3-flash | $0.1875 input, $0.625 output; cache-hit rate 60.79% in the last 30 days |
| Structured JSON extraction | qwen3.8-27b | $0.045 input, $0.35 output; deterministic at temperature 0 |
| Hard reasoning passes | deepseek-v4-pro-pinned | $1.65 input, $4.95 output; check it is listed at /v1/models first |
When Fikra is not the fit
Go provider-direct if you need exactly one provider, already hold a funded account that settles without friction, or need a contractual SLA. Fikra self-serve is prepaid with no SLA; uptime is published at /status, not warranted.
Also do not plan a mobile-money-first rollout outside Kenya. The Kenyan checkout shows M-Pesa and Airtel Money; every other market in this set is card-only.
How to start in Kenya in ten minutes
- Create the account at /account/signup and verify the email address.
- Copy the fk_live_ key from the dashboard and store it somewhere safe; it is shown once.
- Open /dashboard, choose M-Pesa, Airtel Money or card, and approve the prompt on your phone. The minimum top-up is $5; it credits KES 133 to the USD wallet, and the KES checkout charges KES 136.99 including the 3% processing fee.
- Point your OpenAI client at https://api.fikraapi.co.ke/v1 and set the model to deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017.
- Run 50 prompts from your own workload, then open /stats and the dashboard to check token spend and cache hits before you scale.
- Cap the key with a budget in the dashboard, keep the route that wins your prompt set, and drop the rest.
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."}]}'
Questions buyers ask
Can I pay from Kenya without a foreign credit card?
Yes. The Kenyan checkout shows M-Pesa, Airtel Money and card. M-Pesa and Airtel Money approve via a prompt on your phone; the minimum top-up is $5 and credits KES 133 to the USD wallet. Other African markets pay by USD card at this checkout.
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.