Credits & Monetization
OpenFork has two separate economies: a credit system for the community GPU network, and a real-money system for the Monetize tier. They are completely isolated — credits can never be converted to cash or vice versa.
Credit Economy
Community GPU time tokens. Earn by sharing your GPU, spend to use others. No real monetary value.
Monetize Economy
Real USD. Buy prepaid compute balance, pay providers, withdraw earnings to your bank.
Credit System
Credits represent GPU time contributed to and consumed from the community network. The system is designed around reciprocal sharing: give compute, get compute.
How credits are earned
Every time your desktop client completes a community job, you earn credits based on the job's actual GPU usage:
A 24 GB GPU running a 6-minute job earns significantly more than an 8 GB GPU on a 1-minute job. The base rate is set by the platform and applies equally to all providers in the credit economy.
Active provider bypass
How credits are spent
Credits are deducted when you submit a job with the all policy (community network) and you don't have an active provider running. The cost is calculated the same way as earnings — by the actual VRAM and duration of the completed job.
Free Daily Generations
Users without an active provider get 3 free generations per day to try out the platform. Free daily slots use the community GPU network (not monetize providers) and reset at midnight UTC.
Earning with Monetize Mode
Monetize mode lets GPU owners earn real USD by processing paid jobs. Payments go through Stripe — you connect a bank account once and withdrawals arrive in 1–3 business days.
Setting up as a provider
In the desktop client, switch community mode to Monetize.
Click "Connect Bank Account" — this opens Stripe Express onboarding in your browser. Takes about 5 minutes the first time.
Start the client. Your GPU will now receive paid jobs from the monetize queue.
Earnings accumulate with a 3-day hold, then become available to withdraw.
Go to openfork.video/earnings, click "Withdraw" when you have ≥ $5 available.
Payout rates
Rates are calibrated against Vast.ai market pricing so community GPU providers are competitive with cloud alternatives:
| Job type | Approx. user cost | Provider earns |
|---|---|---|
| WAN 2.2 (8 GB, ~3 min) | ~$0.006 | ~$0.005 |
| WAN 2.2 (24 GB, ~6 min) | ~$0.055 | ~$0.046 |
| Hunyuan (16 GB, ~25 min) | ~$0.18 | ~$0.15 |
The platform takes ~25% as a fee. Rates may vary by service type — see the full rate card at openfork.video/earnings.
Buying Compute Balance (Monetize Jobs)
To submit jobs using the Monetize policy, you need a prepaid balance. Go to openfork.video/credits to top up via Stripe Checkout.