How do I give every student in a class an LLM API key with a budget?
Give each student their own API key with a monthly spend limit; at the limit, that key stops and the rest of the class keeps working. A typical student coding with an agent three days a week uses $0.69 a week on GPT-6 Luna or $10.59 on Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Cost per student, by model
Measured on coding-agent traffic through our gateway from September 13 to October 12, 2026, priced at each model's list price, for a 10-week course with agent work on three days a week.
| Student and model | Per week | 10-week course |
|---|---|---|
| Typical, GPT-6 Luna | $0.69 | $6.90 |
| Typical, Sonnet 5.5 | $10.59 | $105.90 |
| Busy, GPT-6 Luna | $7.14 | $71.40 |
| Busy, Sonnet 5.5 | $86.91 | $869.10 |
Usage at list prices, 3 active days a week. Typical is the median day, busy the 90th percentile on every active day. The days come from working developers using agents such as OpenCode, Kilo and Roo, so a class doing short exercises may use less. Run the first week, then check each key's spend.
Budget for 20, 50 or 200 students
On Sonnet 5.5, a typical student's month is about $46, so a $50 limit fits them and stops a heavy user within two busy days. On GPT-6 Luna, a typical month is about $3, and a $10 limit is enough for most students.
| Class | Luna | Sonnet | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 students | $159 | $2,436 | $3,450 |
| 50 students | $397 | $6,089 | $8,625 |
| 200 students | $1,587 | $24,357 | $34,500 |
Course totals you pay on pay as you go for typical students over 10 weeks: usage plus 15%, on GPT-6 Luna or Claude Sonnet 5.5. Ceiling is the most the course can cost with a $50 monthly limit per student over three calendar months; limits count usage, and the 15% comes on top.
Set up the class
There is no bulk import yet. At about a minute per student, a class of 30 takes around half an hour and a class of 200 most of an afternoon.
- In the dashboard sidebar, under Business, choose Create a company and name it after the course.
- On Home, choose + Add an application key. Name it after the student (student-01 works if you keep a roster). Leave Plan on Decide later: pay as you go is chosen on the key itself.
- Open the key in People & keys. Under Plan, choose Pay as you go. The first time, add funds to the company balance through Stripe ($50 to $1,000 per payment).
- Under Pay-as-you-go limit per month, choose Set limit and enter the student's monthly budget.
- Choose Copy key and give it to the student with the base URL https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1. Setup guides: Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode.
- After the last class, open each key and choose Revoke key. It stops working immediately, and the workspace stays ready for next term.
Controls for the instructor
- A student who reaches their limit is stopped until the next calendar month, or until you raise the limit.
- On Billing, the pay-as-you-go balance has a Monthly limit for the whole company, a second ceiling across all keys. With Automatic refill off, keys also stop when the balance runs out.
- Admins see usage and logs for any key, and Billing shows spend this period by company or by key. Every top-up comes with an invoice in the company's name, with billing address and VAT or tax ID.
- The Compliance setting keeps requests in Europe, in the United States or anywhere, for the whole course or one key.
Other ways to cap a student's spend
For hundreds of students with keys created from a script, OpenRouter's key API is the stronger fit today. Standard Compute adds models from several providers behind one key, a region rule per key, and one workspace for budgets, invoices and the audit log.
| Option | Where the cap sits |
|---|---|
| OpenAI API | A project. A hard monthly spend limit returns HTTP 429 when reached, so each student needs a project |
| Anthropic Console | A workspace. A monthly spend limit per workspace, up to 100 workspaces per organization by default |
| Google Gemini API | A project. Spend caps are experimental and can overshoot by about 10 minutes of usage |
| OpenRouter | A key. A credit limit that resets daily, weekly, monthly or never, and keys can be created through an API |
| Standard Compute | A key. A monthly limit on pay as you go, or a plan per key from $19, set in the dashboard |
Checked on each vendor's documentation on October 13, 2026: developers.openai.com (rate limits guide), platform.claude.com (workspaces), ai.google.dev (billing) and openrouter.ai (API keys).
The catch
A limit applies per calendar month, so a 10-week course can spend up to three months of limits per student; size the limit as a monthly share. Payment is by card or Link through Stripe, with no purchase orders or bank transfer.
Where Standard Compute fits
Courses that teach with coding agents and need each student's spend capped before the term starts. Creating the company is free; you pay for usage plus 15% from a prepaid balance, or a plan per key.
FAQ
Do students need their own Standard Compute account?
No. An application key works for anyone you give it to, so students only need the key and the base URL. If you want students to sign in and see their own usage, invite each one by email with + Invite a person; they get their own key when they accept.
What happens when a student reaches their limit?
Their key stops for the rest of the calendar month, and everyone else keeps working. You can raise the limit at any time under Pay-as-you-go limit per month. The check runs before each request, so one already running can finish slightly past the limit.
Which coding agents can students use?
Anything that speaks the OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API at https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1. Claude Code connects by setting ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL, and Codex CLI, OpenCode and Cline use the OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
Can a European university keep inference in Europe?
Yes. Set the company's Compliance to Europe, and requests, fallbacks included, only go to model providers' European endpoints. It controls where providers run inference; it is not an end-to-end data-residency guarantee, and fewer models are available in Europe.
How does the school pay, and do we get invoices?
Add funds by card or Link through Stripe. Each payment comes with an invoice in the company's name, with billing address and VAT or tax ID, listed under Billing. Unused balance carries over to the next month.
Is there education pricing or free credit for students?
No. Classes pay the same rates as everyone: usage plus 15% on pay as you go, or a plan per key from $19 a month. If students only need an assistant in their editor, verified students get GitHub Copilot Student free through GitHub Education.