OpenCrater — Earn AI Compute (and USDC)

Get paid for the AI coding you already do — without leaving your editor.

OpenCrater turns the terminal into an income stream that flows back to you. There are two ways to earn, and you can do either or both:

1. Earn AI compute — for any developer

Code in the AI CLIs you already use — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini/Antigravity, Copilot CLI, Grok CLI. When your session shows an occasional, tasteful, opt-in Blip, you bank AI compute — tokens you spend on Claude or Codex when you hit your plan's limit. Zero workflow change, opt-in, and you hold the off switch.

2. Earn real USDC — if you maintain something

Maintain a package, MCP server, CLI tool, or anything that works with AI agents? Wire OpenCrater into it and earn real income in USDC from Blips shown to your tool's users — per click, paid out on a 48-hour cycle. Open source finally pays.

What this extension is: a friendly front-end for the opencrater CLI — it installs the CLI, signs you in, wires your AI CLIs, and shows your compute wallet right in the editor. It contains no SDK code. Earning happens through the CLI/SDK; the USDC/maintainer side is managed on your dashboard (the extension links you there).

Quick start (earn compute)

Run OpenCrater: Sign In / Sign Up from the Command Palette (or click the OpenCrater ⚡ icon → Sign in). It installs the CLI if needed and signs you in.
Your installed AI CLIs get wired automatically.
Code as usual — your compute balance grows in the status bar.
Hit your limit? Run OpenCrater: Run Claude Code on Compute (or opencrater claude).

Prefer the terminal?

npm i -g opencrater
opencrater login        # link this machine + wire your AI CLIs (earn compute)
opencrater balance      # check your compute wallet
opencrater claude       # run Claude Code on your earned compute

Earn USDC as a maintainer

Open OpenCrater: Earn USDC With Your Package (Publisher) (or visit your dashboard) and register your package / MCP server / tool to get a publisher key (ock_…).
Wire it so Blips shown to your tool's users attribute to you:

opencrater on --key ock_xxx --package your-package-name

Earnings (per-click, USDC, settled every 48h) show on your dashboard.

What you can do from the editor

Sign in / sign up — browser (one click, deep-links back), CLI, or paste-token.
Install the CLI — one command.
Wire AI CLIs (earn compute) — connect your installed AI coding CLIs.
Compute Wallet — balance + pending in a sidebar view and the status bar.
Run Claude Code / Codex on compute — launch them on your earned compute.
Earn USDC with your package — jump to the publisher dashboard.

Command reference (the `opencrater` CLI)

Command	What it does
`opencrater login`	Link this machine to your account and wire your AI CLIs (earn compute).
`opencrater on`	Opt in / re-wire compute hooks. With `--key <ock_…> --package <name>` → publisher mode (earn USDC on your package's Blips).
`opencrater off`	Opt out of Blips on this machine.
`opencrater balance`	Show your compute wallet balance.
`opencrater claude [..args]`	Run Claude Code on earned compute. Args pass through; `opencrater claude -c` resumes the session your limit cut off.
`opencrater codex [..args]`	Run Codex on earned compute (`-c` resumes your last session).
`opencrater grok [..args]`	Run xAI's Grok CLI on earned compute (`-c` continues).
`opencrater status`	Show install id, opt-out state, and detected hosts.
`opencrater logout`	Unlink the compute wallet on this machine.
`opencrater hooks install --key <ock_…> --package <name> [--host <host>]`	(Re)install publisher hooks — all detected hosts, or one `--host`.
`opencrater hooks uninstall`	Remove all OpenCrater hooks.
`opencrater hooks list`	List installed OpenCrater hooks.

Supported hosts: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini/Antigravity, Copilot CLI, Grok CLI. Env: OPENCRATER_DISABLE=1 disables everything; NO_COLOR is respected.

Privacy — what we collect & what we don't

OpenCrater never reads your code, prompts, or files. We log the Blips you see and click — that's how you earn — plus basic context (which CLI, package type, language, location) to match Blips and attribute earnings. Nothing about your actual work. It's opt-in, and you can turn it off any time. See exactly what we do and don't collect: https://opencrater.to/data

Settings

opencrater.apiOrigin — API origin (default https://api.opencrater.to).
opencrater.webOrigin — website origin (default https://opencrater.to).
opencrater.pollSeconds — wallet refresh interval (default 90s, min 30s).

Get early access

OpenCrater is invite-only before our public launch this fall. Join the waitlist → https://opencrater.to/waitlist?utm_source=vscode&utm_medium=extension&utm_campaign=phase1-dev

Follow along: X @opencratr · Instagram @opencrater · opencrater.to

OpenCrater — Earn AI Compute

OpenCrater