Skip to main content
At start, after creating account on Tusky you’re on Pay as You Go plan: you pay for the things you use on blockchain. There are two ways of funding your on-chain activity and decentralized storage: x402 micropayment or a prepaid balance.

​
How Billing Works

Every file you upload through Tusky involves two costs:
Cost ComponentTokenDescription
Walrus storageWALPaid to Walrus storage nodes for blob storage across epochs. Rate determined by the Walrus network.
Gas feeSUISui network transaction fee for publishing the blob on-chain.
Storage costs scale with file size and the number of storage epochs. Tusky passes through Walrus storage costs directly with no markup or infrastructure fee.

​
Prepaid balance

You can deposit tokens into your Tusky balance wallet. All storage operations in pay as you go account and subscription plan payments draw from that balance automatically. With auto-convert enabled (the default), you can deposit any of supported tokens: SUI / WAL / USDC — the publisher swaps tokens automatically when needed. You can also deposit SUI & WAL directly and disable auto conversions if you prefer.

​
Funding Your Balance

1

Open the wallet page

Navigate to Account → Wallet in the Tusky dashboard, or go directly to dashboard.tusky.io/account/wallet.
2

Deposit SUI / WAL / USDC

Click **Deposit ** and select the token. Approve the transfer from your connected wallet.

​
Checking Your Balance

View your current SUI and WAL balances on the wallet page in the dashboard. The page shows:
  • Available balance — funds ready for storage operations
  • Reserved balance — funds earmarked for in-progress uploads
  • Estimated remaining storage — approximate storage capacity at current rates

​
Programmatic balance check

Use the SDK or API to check your balance programmatically: 
const account = await tusky.account.get();
console.log("SUI balance:", account.wallet.sui);
console.log("WAL balance:", account.wallet.wal);

​
Low Balance Notifications

Tusky sends notifications when your wallet balance drops below the threshold needed for continued operations:
  • Warning — balance is running low, top up soon to avoid upload failures
  • Critical — balance is insufficient for new uploads; existing stored files are unaffected
If your WAL balance runs out, you will not be able to upload new files or renew expiring blobs. Existing stored files remain available on the Walrus network until their storage epochs expire. Top up before epoch expiration to ensure continuity.
Configure notification preferences (email, webhook) in the dashboard under Account → Notifications.

​
Pay-As-You-Go with x402

For applications that prefer per-request billing over prepaid balances, Tusky supports the x402 protocol — a standard for HTTP-native micropayments. With x402, each API request includes a payment header, and Tusky charges the exact cost of the operation in real time. This eliminates the need to maintain a prepaid balance.
  1. Your application sends an API request to Tusky
  2. If the request requires payment, Tusky responds with a 402 Payment Required status and a payment specification
  3. Your application signs a micropayment using your Sui wallet
  4. The request is retried with the payment proof in the header
  5. Tusky processes the request and settles the payment
The x402-compatible SDK handles this flow automatically.

​
Cost Estimation

Use the dashboard cost calculator or the upload cost API to preview costs before uploading. Pass a list of file sizes to get a per-file breakdown and totals: 
const estimate = await tusky.upload.cost({
  files: [
    { size: 10 * 1024 * 1024, name: "video.mp4" },
    { size: 2 * 1024 * 1024, name: "report.pdf" },
  ],
  epochs: 5,
});

console.log("Total WAL:", estimate.totals.totalWal);
console.log("Total SUI:", estimate.totals.totalSui);
console.log("Balance sufficient:", estimate.balance.sufficient);
Cost estimates are based on current Walrus network rates and may fluctuate. The actual cost is determined at the time of the storage transaction.

​
Summary

FeaturePrepaid Balancex402 Micropayments
Funding modelDeposit tokens upfrontPay per request via micropayment
Best forHigh-volume, predictable usageSporadic, per-request billing
OverheadSingle deposit transactionPayment header per request
Balance managementManual top-ups with notificationsNo balance to manage

​
Next Steps

Generate API Keys

Create API keys for programmatic access.

Quickstart

Upload your first file to Walrus.