Frequently asked questions

Do I need a card to try it?

No. Airi runs on prepaid balance: you top up what you want and it draws down. No monthly fee, no commitment, no automatic charge at the end of the month.

How do I top up?

Today, by writing to us from the Balance page, and we credit the amount. Paying from the panel directly is coming. We say so plainly because it is the most obvious friction in the product right now.

What does each thing cost?

Encoding bills per output minute per quality: ten minutes at 1080p and 720p is twenty output minutes, not ten. You see the exact price before confirming, worked out by the same code that later charges you. The full detail is in Encoding.

What happens if I run out of balance?

Nothing is deleted all at once. You stop being able to upload, encode and create keys, but what you already have keeps playing. We email you, and you have fifteen days to top up before the files are deleted. Topping up cancels the countdown immediately.

What does stop dead is playback of encrypted content: with no balance, no new permissions are issued, though anyone already watching finishes.

Can I see what I have spent?

Yes, movement by movement on the Balance page: every encode, every day of storage, every GB served and every top-up, with its amount and date. Nothing is bundled into a generic "usage" line.

What files can I upload?

The usual video containers. If you are unsure about yours, try it: an encoding job that fails costs you nothing, so the worst outcome is finding out.

Do I always have to encode?

No. An uploaded mp4 plays as it is, and for many cases that is enough. Encoding buys two things: video that adapts to each viewer's connection instead of stalling, and the ability to encrypt it. Without encoding you get neither.

What qualities can I ask for?

240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (4K). The list is fixed on purpose: every output has to land in a tier with a published price, and one we cannot price is one we cannot sell.

Can I improve a low-quality video by asking for 1080p?

No, and neither can anyone else: detail that is not in the original cannot be invented. Ask for 1080p from a 720p master and you get the 720p — and you are charged for the 720p that came out, not the 1080p you asked for.

How long does encoding take?

It depends on the length and how many qualities you ask for. You do not have to wait with the page open: the job carries on by itself and the results appear in your storage when it finishes.

Can I delete a video?

Yes, and it is immediate and irreversible: no bin, no undo. Any links you had handed out stop working at that moment.

Can anyone with the link watch it?

Only while the link is still alive. The links Airi hands out expire: from a minute to a week, your choice. After that they stop serving, even if someone forwarded them. The file's real address, unsigned, never opens at all.

The advice is to use the shortest expiry that works for you and mint one link per viewer, rather than one that circulates.

Can I restrict by country?

Yes, with a list of allowed or blocked countries. You can also cap download speed. All of it is enforced at the delivery network, before a single byte is served — which means whoever is refused does not cost you anything either.

Can I stop people downloading my video?

You can make it hard, not impossible, and be suspicious of anyone who promises otherwise. DRM encrypts the video so it only decrypts on an authorised device, which rules out casual downloading and comfortable redistribution. It does not rule out a screen recorder or a camera pointed at the screen.

What DRM does give you, and the reason distributors insist on it, is control: you decide how long a permission lasts, whether it works offline, and what quality each device gets depending on how secure it is.

Can I make the player work only on my site?

Yes. In the player's settings you name the domains where it is allowed, and anywhere else it does not load even if someone copies the embed code.

Do I need DRM?

If you publish courses, corporate video or your own material, usually not: expiring links plus a domain restriction already cover it. DRM turns up when somebody requires it — a distribution contract, a studio, a platform — or when the content is worth enough to justify it.

Encrypting costs one key ($0.01) plus one permission ($0.009) per playback. For a small catalogue that is loose change; for a high-traffic one it adds up.

Which browsers play encrypted video?

Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Android. Not Safari yet: Apple only supports its own system, FairPlay, and our player does not cover it yet. An encrypted embed on Safari shows a clear error rather than spinning forever.

Unencrypted video plays in every browser, Safari included. If your audience is mostly Apple and the content does not demand encryption, that is the sensible option today. This version's limits are listed in Player.

Can I use my own player?

Yes, and you lose nothing by doing so: the price is the same. There is a manual integration guide for Shaka and Video.js, with the usual mistakes already flagged.

Why is there no password?

Because one more password is one more password to leak or reuse. You sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email; it expires in ten minutes and dies after five wrong guesses. If you control your inbox, you control your account.

Are my videos separated from other customers'?

Yes. Each account has its own isolated space, and every credential you create is confined to it. Not even by mistake can one of your credentials read another account's data.

Can I connect an AI to my account?

Yes. Airi speaks the MCP protocol, so Claude, Cursor or any compatible client can upload, encode and publish for you. It installs with one command and runs on your machine, so your credential never leaves it. It is explained in MCP, including what that server will not let the AI do.

Can I integrate Airi into my own application?

Everything the dashboard does is in the API, without exception — the dashboard uses it like any other client. Start at Getting started and mint a credential in Developers.

My question is not here

Write to us. We answer, and if the question is a good one it ends up on this page.