Ox Alpha’s full price list, as of August 23, 2026, is one number: $0. Input, output, both public routes. That is also exactly why the pricing question deserves a real answer, because “free” on a three-day-old stealth model with no named maker means something very different from free on a product you can buy. We documented what Ox Alpha actually is, and who probably makes it, in the explainer; this page tracks the money.
- Ox Alpha costs $0 today on both public routes: OpenRouter lists $0 input and $0 output for stealth/ox-alpha, and OpenCode offers a limited-time free tier during the stealth window.
- There is no announced end date, no post-preview price, no named provider, no SLA, and no enterprise plan: every number after the window is currently unknowable.
- Community estimates put the window’s end around August 27 to 28, 2026, based on earlier stealth-model patterns; treat that as a guess, not a deadline.
- The retention fine print differs by route: OpenCode states zero retention, while OpenRouter’s stealth listing says the provider retains prompts and completions. Both cannot be the whole story.
- The realistic cost comparison is against the model family it likely belongs to: if the GLM theory holds, expect post-reveal pricing in that family’s range rather than frontier-flagship rates.
- This page updates the same day pricing, an end date, or a reveal lands.
- How much does Ox Alpha cost?
- Nothing, today: $0 input and output on OpenRouter (stealth/ox-alpha), and a limited-time free tier in OpenCode. There is no announced post-preview price.
- How long will Ox Alpha stay free?
- Unannounced. Community estimates say around August 27 to 28, 2026 based on earlier stealth windows, but no official end date exists.
- Is there a paid Ox Alpha plan or API?
- No. No named provider, no first-party API, no enterprise plan, no SLA. Access is preview-only through OpenRouter and OpenCode.
- What's the catch with free?
- An anonymous provider and inconsistent retention terms between routes. Free inference is real; the counterparty is unknown.
§ 01Every route, today
| Route | Price today | What you need | Fine print |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter API | $0 in / $0 out | OpenRouter account + key, model stealth/ox-alpha |
Stealth listing says the provider retains prompts and completions |
| OpenCode | Free, limited time | OpenCode client (its own plan is $5 first month, $10/mo after) | OpenCode states zero retention for this provider |
| Unofficial web chats | Free, capped | Nothing | Fan-made fronts, not the provider; messages still go upstream |
Two of those fine-print cells disagree with each other about what happens to your prompts, and that disagreement is the most informative “price” on the page. Until the operator has a name, the real cost of free is that you cannot verify either claim.
§ 02The window
No end date has been announced, for the simple reason that nobody has announced anything: the model appeared on August 20 with no maker attached. Community estimates put the window’s end around August 27 to 28, extrapolated from earlier stealth previews that ran about a week. Treat that as a pattern, not a promise. The other standard ending is more abrupt: the endpoint simply disappears, and the model resurfaces weeks later under its real name with real pricing. Nothing wired against the free endpoint should assume tomorrow.
What we can say with confidence is what does not exist behind the $0: no SLA, no enterprise plan, no first-party API, no published rate-limit contract, no support channel. Free preview inference at this scale (OpenCode’s live counters showed roughly 12 trillion tokens in three days) is a data-gathering and launch-marketing exercise, and the users burning the window hardest are effectively the launch list.
§ 03What comes after, realistically
The post-window price is unknowable today because the maker is officially unknown. The best available reasoning: the strongest published evidence, a 44-of-44 tokenizer fingerprint match, points at the GLM family, and if that holds, the sensible expectation is post-reveal pricing in that family’s existing range rather than frontier-flagship rates. If the competing Gemini theory wins instead, the pricing story changes completely. Either way, the day real numbers exist, they land on this URL.
If you are budgeting around it now, the practical rule is: use the window for evaluation, not dependency. Benchmark it on your real workloads, note where the 1M context genuinely changes your architecture, and price the alternatives you would actually pay for when the hourglass runs out.
§ 04The cost frame that survives the reveal
Here is the comparison that will still be true after the window closes, whoever turns out to have made this model. Ox Alpha is a model, priced per token. The things businesses actually budget for, a role that gets owned, work that carries over, someone accountable between conversations, are a layer above the token price, and that layer is where the real cost differences live. Token prices across frontier models have been converging for a year; what has not converged is what sits on top of them.
That is the layer we build, so apply the usual discount: CellCog sells standing AI employees, usage-based, where a full shift of real work runs about $25 and the cost depends purely on how much work you assign. The model underneath is our problem, not yours, including on the day a mystery box on OpenRouter turns out to be the next big thing. Our full cost breakdown, worked scenarios included, is in the AI employee cost guide.
Q1What does Ox Alpha cost on OpenRouter?
As of August 23, 2026: $0 per million input tokens and $0 per million output tokens, under the model ID stealth/ox-alpha. It is preview pricing on a stealth model, changeable without notice.
Q2Is Ox Alpha free on OpenCode?
Yes, as a limited-time promotional model. OpenCode’s own subscription is $5 for the first month and $10 a month after, but Ox Alpha is currently listed as free rather than metered against that plan.
Q3When does the Ox Alpha free window end?
Nobody has announced an end date. Community estimates land around August 27 to 28, 2026, extrapolated from earlier one-week stealth previews. The endpoint can also disappear without warning, which is what previous stealth models did.
Q4What will Ox Alpha cost after the reveal?
Unknown, because the maker is unknown. If the leading GLM-family theory holds, the reasonable expectation is pricing in that family’s existing range rather than frontier-flagship rates. We will publish the real numbers on this URL the day they exist.
Q5Does using free Ox Alpha cost anything at all?
Money, no. Risk, yes: the provider is anonymous, and the two access routes state different retention terms, with OpenRouter’s listing saying prompts are retained by the provider. Sensitive code and data should wait for a named operator.