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APIYI is official-relay by default. As an enterprise-grade AI API provider, our default channels are vendor official APIs and official cloud marketplaces, focused on quality, availability, and long-term stability. Reverse groups are a supplement for personal learning, cost-sensitive workloads, and non-critical tasks. A group is the call channel attached to a token. It decides which models the token can use, which multiplier applies, and which upstream route the request takes. You do not need to memorize the table; follow three steps:
1

Check which groups support the model

Use Model Pricing in the console or the token editor to confirm the model’s groups. If the model is not in the selected group, the request returns “no available channel for this model”.
2

Match the group to the workload

Production, enterprise, and coding Agents should prefer official relay or enterprise groups. Personal learning, simple tasks, and cost-sensitive workloads can use reverse groups.
3

Compare price and set a fallback

Compare the group multiplier and the effective discount after recharge bonuses. If the primary group is unstable, configure a fallback group on the token.
A multiplier is a billing coefficient, not the final discount. For text models, the actual unit price is model multiplier × group multiplier. Image and video models are billed per call or per second; the console’s Model Pricing is authoritative.

How to use a group: select it when creating a token

A group is not a separate switch; it is a field you select when creating or editing a token. Changing groups does not require code changes: change the token’s group, and the model name and endpoint stay the same.
1

Open the tokens page

Go to the Tokens page in the console and create a token or edit an existing one.
2

Select a group

Choose the target group under “Select group”. If you are unsure, start with Default.
3

Add fallback groups

For higher success rates, add 1–2 backup groups under “Fallback group”; traffic falls back automatically when the primary group fails.
4

Save and call

Save the token and send requests as usual. The group affects routing and billing only; the model name and endpoint do not change.
If you need multiple primary groups, use separate tokens by workload so logs and costs are easier to review. For the full procedure, see Tokens & Groups.

Official relay and reverse: official by default, reverse as a supplement

Official relay means resources forwarded through a vendor’s official API or official cloud marketplace, such as the Anthropic API, Claude on AWS, Google AI Studio / Vertex, Volcano Engine, and Alibaba Cloud. Reverse-engineered means access obtained through unofficial interfaces such as the web app, CLI, or IDE, with APIYI pooling and scheduling the resources. APIYI is official-relay by default. The official-relay groups come first; the reverse section explains where reverse fits.

Official relay: the default channel

Default / SVIP are mostly official relay but also contain some reverse-engineered image models such as gpt-image-2-all, gpt-image-2.6-all, and the -vip series. For image models, check the exact model and group rather than the group name alone.

Reverse: cost-effective supplement

If you are doing personal learning, cost-sensitive work, or non-critical tasks, you can use the three reverse groups below. Production, enterprise, and complex Agent workloads should still prefer official relay.
Apart from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, vendors do not have a separate text reverse group; their text models use the official-relay Default / SVIP groups. Reverse groups are a supplement and do not promise the same SLA, concurrency, or feature completeness as official relay.

What Is the Difference Between Official-Relay and Reverse-Engineered APIs?

A dimension-by-dimension comparison of stability, protocol compatibility, feature completeness, caching, concurrency, and long-term sustainability, plus five acceptance metrics.

All groups at a glance

The table is ordered by general, Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, image, and video groups. Multipliers and discounts were verified on 2026-11-14 (UTC+8); groups and prices can change with upstream adjustments, so the console is authoritative.
How to read the percentages: they are the share of the official price, not a percentage off. Below 100% means cheaper than the official price; above 100% means more expensive. “With 10% / 20% bonus” is the effective price after a recharge bonus, calculated as the group multiplier ÷ 1.1 or ÷ 1.2. The discount columns for Default / SVIP refer to text models; image models (including Nano Banana and GPT Image) are priced by the specific model, as explained below.The 0.18 / 0.14 video multipliers are not direct discounts. They are RMB pricing conversion coefficients. SeeDance2 is nominally about 1.26× the official price and about 1.05× after a 20% bonus. Wan&HappyHorse is about 98% of the official price by default and about 82% after a 20% bonus. Recharge bonuses follow the current promotion rules.
NB-Enterprise is not 1.4× the official price. It is the high-quality enterprise fallback for Nano Banana. Its 1.4 multiplier is relative to Default: Nano Banana on Default is already about 37–50% of the official price depending on the model, so NB-Enterprise is about 50% of official for the main models and about 42–47% after a 20% bonus — still below half price. At the lowest Default tier (~33% after bonus), the enterprise group is about 46%; before bonus, the main models are about 50–56% of official. NB_OSS is priced the same as Default. The console is authoritative.
SeeDance2 competes on supply and added capabilities, not price. The default price is about 1.26× official; after a 20% bonus for large recharges it is about 1.05×, still a ~5% premium. From a tax perspective (issuing a 6% VAT special invoice), this channel does not make money on supply — it exists for customer convenience. The real advantages are face whitelisting (virtual faces + real-person authorization) and the free asset library: official Seedance blocks real-person images by default, and whitelisting enables them (real-person reference assets still go through the asset library); the asset library required for character consistency is a separately purchased add-on on the official side (starting in the tens of thousands of RMB per year), while APIYI includes it free with the Seedance API. See Seedance 2.0 / 2.5 overview for the full breakdown.
For scarce models such as gpt-5.2-pro, gpt-5.5-pro, and o3-pro, the token must use SVIP; these models are not in Default.

Transparent pricing and recharge bonuses

APIYI has no separate business-negotiation policy: prices are the same for every customer. The only discount is the recharge bonus program. We recommend that enterprise customers participate as well; it is more cost-effective over the long run. Recharge more, get more — reliable long-term service that helps your business succeed.

Do enterprise customers get separate pricing?

No. Pricing is public and identical for all customers, which removes the back-and-forth of price negotiations.

Recharge bonus program

First-recharge bonus and tiered bonuses of 10%–20%. The more you recharge, the higher the bonus — better value over time.

Choosing by model vendor

Start with whether the vendor has a separate reverse group, then check whether you need a specific protocol or output format, and finally decide between production stability and cost:
  1. Does the vendor have a separate reverse group? Only Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google do. For every other vendor, text models use the official-relay Default / SVIP groups; image and video models use their dedicated groups.
  2. Do you need a specific protocol or output? Claude native → ClaudeCode; Responses → CodexResponses; image URL → image2_OSS / NB_OSS; video → SeeDance2 / Wan&HappyHorse.
  3. Production or cost first? Production and enterprise workloads use official relay or enterprise groups. Personal learning and non-critical workloads can use reverse groups.

Choosing by key model

Coding Agents

Image models

For image generation, check three things first: do you need base64 or a URL; is this a peak/production workload that needs an enterprise fallback; and are you willing to use a cheaper reverse model. The default is Default; add image2Enterprise / NB-Enterprise for stability; use image2_OSS / NB_OSS when you need a URL; -all / -vip are lower-cost reverse models for cost-sensitive, non-hard-real-time workloads.

Video models

Long context, multimodal, and retrieval

Long-context models, multimodal understanding, Embedding, Rerank, and TTS use Default by default; use SVIP when you need a scarce Pro model. These workloads do not have separate reverse groups.

Group selection checklist

  • Select the group on the token first: Console → Tokens → Group. Use a fallback group when the primary group fails.
  • A model outside the group returns an error: The common message is “no available channel for this model”. Check the model’s supported groups before suspecting the key.
  • Reverse groups do not promise the same SLA as official relay: Production, enterprise, and complex Agent workloads should prefer official relay. Reverse groups are for learning, cost-sensitive, and non-critical tasks.
  • The console is authoritative for prices: Recharge bonuses follow the promotion rules. The “with 10% / 20% bonus” columns are effective prices, not an extra charge.
  • Start with Default if unsure: Once the request works, switch to a dedicated group based on stability or cost.
Claude_Reverse, Codex_Reverse, and Gemini_Reverse are reverse-engineered resources. Availability fluctuates with the upstream resource pool, and they do not promise the same SLA as official relay. Production environments, enterprise customers, and complex Agent workflows should prefer official relay or enterprise groups.

APIYI channel principles

Official-Relay vs Reverse-Engineered APIs

Compare stability, protocol, caching, concurrency, and compliance

Tokens & Groups

Create tokens and configure primary and fallback groups

What Is a Group?

User groups vs token groups

Cache Billing

Cache behavior and billing for Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini

Model Pricing

Prices and specifications for every model

Image and Video Models

Generation guides and parameters by model