Nous Portal payment failed, short answer: Nous Portal (portal.nousresearch.com) is the billing account of Nous Research, the lab behind the open Hermes models. One USD credit balance (1 credit = $1) pays for model API calls, hosted tools (search, scraping, image generation, browser use, speech) and Hermes Cloud hosting. You either subscribe (Plus $20, Super $100 or Ultra $200 a month) or buy one-off top-ups from +$10 to +$200. Payments go through Stripe, and the terms say all fees are non-refundable. A payment usually fails because the bank refuses foreign USD charges, the balance does not cover tax, the billing address does not match, or the same card was retried too many times. If your local card does not work, a prepaid virtual card bought with USDT or USDC, such as Pink Card from pinkcard.cc, can be added at the Stripe checkout.
Written by the Pink Card team (pinkcard.cc). Plans and rules are taken from the pricing and top-up sections of portal.nousresearch.com, its terms (/terms) and help page (/help), checked on 2026-10-19. Prices can change; the checkout is the source of truth. Pink Card fees are those shown on the purchase page on 2026-10-20. Pink Card is not affiliated with Nous Research.
How Nous Portal charges
- Free: $0, free models only, standard rate limits.
- Plus: $20 a month, $22 of credits each month, unused credits roll over up to $10.
- Super: $100 a month, $110 of credits, rollover cap $50.
- Ultra: $200 a month, $220 of credits, rollover cap $100.
- One-off top-ups: presets of +$10, +$20, +$50, +$100 and +$200, plus a custom USD amount. Nous does not publish a minimum top-up.
- Models are priced per million input and output tokens in the Portal catalog (some are $0). We could not confirm per-token prices for the Hermes models themselves, so check the models page in the Portal.
- There is also a “Use your ChatGPT plan” option that runs supported inference on an eligible ChatGPT account without a paid Nous plan; tools and Hermes Cloud are still billed.
Why was I charged $20?
$20 is both the Plus monthly price and the +$20 top-up preset, so the amount alone does not tell you which one it was. The two Nous charges we saw on one of our cards were $20.00 each (merchant NOUS RESEARCH INC. AUSTIN), about two months apart with nothing in the month between, which does not look like an uninterrupted monthly plan. Check the billing history in your Portal account. The terms name the company as Nous Research, Inc., a Delaware corporation; Nous does not explain the AUSTIN in the descriptor.
Subscription or top-up?
- If you spend at least $20 a month, Plus is better value: you pay $20 and get $22 of credits.
- If usage is occasional, top-ups are safer: nothing renews automatically.
- Subscriptions are charged in advance and renew automatically; upgrading or downgrading charges the saved card at the new tier for the next period.
- Plan credits only roll over up to the cap (Plus $10). Nous does not say whether one-off top-up credits expire.
Refunds and cancelling
- Terms §5.4: all fees are non-refundable, including unused or partly used periods.
- To cancel, log in and use the cancellation link on the site (terms §17.1); the Portal links to a manage-subscription page. The current paid period is not refunded.
- For billing questions, email [email protected] with your account email, the charge date and amount.
Why Nous Portal declines a card
- The issuing bank refuses the charge. Many banks block foreign online or recurring USD payments, and Stripe only shows "card declined".
- The balance covers the price but not the tax added at checkout.
- Billing address mismatch. The country and postal code are checked against the issuer.
- A 3D Secure check was not completed.
- Too many attempts. Retrying the same card repeatedly, or switching between several cards in minutes, triggers risk checks. Waiting is usually the only fix.
Does a prepaid virtual card work for Nous Portal?
We checked Nous Research charges (merchant NOUS RESEARCH INC. AUSTIN) on our own cards in the 90 days to 2026-10-19: one Pink Card paid two charges of $20.00 (2026-08-05 and 2026-10-04 UTC), and we saw no declined Nous charges. The sample is one card, so we cannot promise every card and every charge will pass.
Pay Nous Portal with a prepaid virtual card (USDT or USDC)
- Open pinkcard.cc/en and choose an amount: presets start at $110 ($110, $220, $500, $1000), or enter a custom amount from $100.
- Pay with USDT on BEP-20 (shown as BSC or BNB Smart Chain on most exchanges; network fee usually under $1) or ERC-20, or with USDC on ERC-20. Send exactly the amount shown, on exactly the network you picked.
- Enter your email twice. No account and no sign-up are needed.
- The card number, expiry, CVV and billing address arrive by email about 1–2 minutes after the payment confirms (check spam).
- In Nous Portal, pick a plan or a top-up amount, click Pay with Stripe, enter the card with the billing address from the email, check the total and submit once.
- For a subscription, top up the same card before each renewal. The number does not change. Top-ups usually reach the card within about 30 minutes of payment.
How much to load (worked examples, no tax)
- Plus: $20 + $1 per transaction + $2.50 monthly card fee = $23.50 a month, so the $110 preset covers about four months.
- Super: $100 + $1 + $2.50 = $103.50, inside the $110 preset for one month. Ultra ($200) needs the $220 preset.
- A +$50 top-up costs $51 from the card.
- Paying for a $110 card: ($110 + $10) × 1.03 = $123.60. A $220 card: ($220 + $10) × 1.03 = $236.90.
- Topping up $100 later: $5 + ($100 + $5) × 5% = $10.25 in fees, $110.25 in total.
Pink Card fees (as of 2026-10-20)
- Card issuance: $10 one-time, plus a 3% service fee on (card amount + $10).
- From the card balance after activation: $1 per transaction and $2.50 per month.
- Failed authorizations are charged $1 too (at most 3 failed charges per card per month), so keep the balance above the next renewal.
- Top-up of the same card: $5 plus 5% of (top-up amount + $5), usually on the card within about 30 minutes. Full fee table: pinkcard.cc/en/fees.
- Once the card details are emailed, the order cannot be cancelled, so double-check your email address before paying.
Routing many models through one account on OpenRouter as well? See: OpenRouter payment methods and card declined fixes
Paying OpenAI or Anthropic API credits directly? See: Pay OpenAI and Anthropic API credits with USDT or USDC
Chinese version (中文版，付款方式按中文站): Nous Portal 怎么付款充值
Related guides: DeepSeek API top-ups at pinkcard.cc/en/guides/deepseek-api-top-up, and the overview for paying several AI tools with USDT at pinkcard.cc/en/guides/pay-chatgpt-claude-cursor-with-usdt. Fees: pinkcard.cc/en/fees. The Pink Card Android app (Google Play: cc.pinkcard.app) shows the balance and every transaction.