How to pay OpenRouter, Neon and other USD dev tools from India

OpenRouter is prepaid: you buy credits by card, so a one-time card payment with international use turned on usually works. Neon bills your card monthly, and its docs say customers in India cannot set up automatic monthly payments, so plan to pay its invoices by hand.

What each vendor accepts

	OpenRouter	Neon
How you pay	Prepaid credits, used as you call models	Monthly invoice for usage, charged to your card on the 1st
Methods (per docs)	Credit and debit cards, AliPay, crypto (USDC)	Card. You can also pay an open invoice from the console
Fees	5.5% on credit purchases (Standard plan), 8% on the Business plan	Usage pricing only on Launch and Scale. No monthly minimum
Auto payments	Optional auto top-up when balance falls below a threshold	Not available for customers in India, per Neon's docs
Spend control	Per-API-key spending limit with daily, weekly or monthly reset	Email alerts at 80% and 100% of a threshold. Not a hard cap
Tax details on invoice	Tax ID field at checkout (via Stripe)	Company name, address and VAT or tax ID in Billing Info

Neon's docs explain that its billing uses Stripe Checkout, which does not support RBI e-mandates, so automatic monthly payments are not possible from India. To pay, go to Billing, then View/Pay invoices, and select Pay invoice. If a payment fails, contact Neon support for an invoice link. Neon no longer bills through AWS Marketplace.

OpenRouter's FAQ says refunds for unused credits can be requested within 24 hours, platform fees are not refundable, and unused credits may expire after a year. For other tools, check their billing page.

Why Indian cards get declined

International or online use is off. Since 2020, RBI has told banks to issue cards with online and international use switched off until you turn it on. Turn on "international" and "online" (e-commerce) separately in your bank app. They are often two different switches.
Recurring payments need an e-mandate. Under RBI's Digital Payments – E-mandate Framework, 2026, a recurring card payment needs a mandate registered with extra authentication (an OTP). The bank must notify you 24 hours before each debit. Later debits up to ₹15,000 can go through without an OTP. Above that, each one needs an OTP. If a vendor's payment system does not support Indian e-mandates, saved-card monthly charges can fail.
New checks on one-time foreign payments. RBI's 2025 authentication directions ask card issuers, by 1 October 2026, to be able to verify one-time cross-border online card payments when the foreign merchant asks. You may now see an OTP or app prompt on some foreign checkouts.
Bank or network blocks. Your bank's fraud checks, a low international limit you set in the app, or limits on corporate or prepaid cards can decline a charge. Call your bank and ask why. The decline reason is usually on their side.

Forex markup and GST on conversion

When you pay in dollars, your bank converts to rupees and usually adds a forex markup fee. It is often a few percent; one bank lists 3.5% on a business credit card. You also pay 18% GST on that markup. Check your card's schedule of charges.

If you load a forex card or send a wire, GST applies to the currency conversion, valued under Rule 32(2) of the CGST Rules. For example, it is 1% of the amount up to ₹1 lakh (minimum ₹250) if the bank uses the slab method, with 18% GST on that.

These bank charges are separate from the reverse charge GST on the tool itself. For a company card, ask your bank if it can show your GSTIN on its GST invoice so you can try to claim credit.

Tips

Use a company card. Then the invoice and the payment both match the company. This makes GST credit and accounting simpler.
Virtual cards. Many Indian banks issue virtual cards. One card per vendor, with its own limit, keeps a leak small.
Forex or prepaid cards. These can help, but some merchants decline prepaid cards. Test with a small amount first.
Prepay where you can. A one-time credit purchase avoids e-mandate problems. On OpenRouter, you can buy credits when needed rather than relying on auto top-up.
Set limits. Use OpenRouter key limits. On Neon, set spending alerts and cap autoscaling. Neon's alerts do not stop usage.

Get a proper invoice for GST

For reverse charge GST, you need an invoice in your company's name.

On Neon, go to Payment info, then Billing Info, then Edit. Add your company name, address, country and tax ID. Download invoices from Billing.
On OpenRouter, add your billing address and tax ID in the purchase form. Its docs list examples such as EU VAT and US EIN. Check whether Indian GSTIN is in the list, or contact their support.
If an invoice shows no Indian GST, you pay 18% IGST yourself under reverse charge and can usually claim it back. See ITC on dollar invoices.

One bill instead of many

Filvon Billing gives you 1 account, 1 bill and 1 GST invoice in rupees for your dev tools. You top up a wallet by UPI or NEFT, and the fee is 6% on what you spend. Get early access.

Sources

General information, not financial, tax or legal advice.