One of the first things people notice about PayPerQ (PPQ) is that you can start using premium AI without signing up for anything. That's by design — privacy and low friction are core to the product. But it also raises a fair question: if there's no account, what happens to my balance and my chats?

PPQ gives you three ways to use it, and they trade off identity, portability, and recovery differently. This post walks through all three — Credit ID, account, and passkey — so you can pick the one that fits how you work.

The short version

Feature	Credit ID	Email/social account	Passkey
Email or social identity required	No	Yes	No, unless linked to an account
Access balance on another device	With the saved Credit ID	Sign in again	Use an available passkey
Chats survive cleared browser data	No	No	Synced chats do; local-only chats don't
Encrypted chat-history sync	No	No	Yes, for new conversations after you enable it
Recovery of balance/account access by PayPerQ	No	Through the sign-in method	Through the linked account, if one is attached
Recovery of encrypted chat history by PayPerQ	No	No	No — PayPerQ never holds the key
Main tradeoff	You must protect the ID	Less anonymous	Losing every passkey may mean losing access

1. Credit ID — no account, nothing to sign up for

This is the default, and it's what you get the moment you top up. There's no email, no password, and no sign-up screen. Your balance is tied to a Credit ID — a string that PPQ generates for you.

It's anonymous at the account level: you don't create an identity-based account with PayPerQ. (To be precise, "no account" doesn't erase all metadata — network-level information, your chosen payment method, and the model providers that process your prompts still see what they normally see. What you're avoiding is an identity-based PayPerQ account.)

The important part is that the Credit ID is a bearer credential: whoever holds it can access that balance. Your chats, meanwhile, live only in the browser you're using right now:

• No cross-device sync. Your history doesn't follow you from laptop to phone.
• Clear your browser data and your local chats are lost. A saved Credit ID lets you regain access to your balance, but it does not restore your conversations.
• A new Credit ID does not restore old chats. Each Credit ID is its own separate world.

Credit ID is the right choice if you want to try PPQ without handing over an email — as long as you're comfortable saving your Credit ID somewhere safe yourself. Think of it like cash: private and simple, but whoever holds it can spend it, and if you lose it, it's gone.

2. Account — a recoverable login for your balance

Creating an account (with email, Google, or GitHub) adds a durable sign-in on top of your balance. Instead of depending on a single browser or a string you have to keep track of, you can simply sign back in — on any device — and your balance is there.

• Recover access through your sign-in method. Forgot which browser you used? Sign in again to recover access to your balance and account settings. (Your chat history is a separate matter — see the passkey section below.)
• Standard recovery paths. Email or social login recovery works the way you'd expect.
• Still private. You're not required to hand over personal details beyond a login — though an account is inherently less anonymous than a Credit ID.

One thing an account does not change on its own is your chat history: by default, conversations are still stored locally in your browser. If you want your chats to travel with you, encrypted, that's what a passkey adds — which brings us to the third option.

3. Passkey — encrypted chat-history sync across your devices

Signing in with a passkey (Touch ID, Face ID, a YubiKey, 1Password, and similar) is the only option that syncs your conversation history privately — and there's no password to manage.

Here's what the encryption actually covers, stated carefully:

Your synchronized chat history is encrypted in your browser before storage. PayPerQ stores the synchronized copy as ciphertext and does not hold the key needed to decrypt it.

That's a real and meaningful guarantee — but it's specifically about the stored, synced copy of your history. It does not mean your AI usage is fully local or invisible. For a model to answer you, your prompt is necessarily processed as readable text by a server on its way to the provider. Encryption protects the history we store for sync; it does not encrypt the live inference request. (If you want privacy that covers inference itself, see our TEE models, where prompts are encrypted to a hardware enclave.) You can also verify the storage behavior yourself — the full walkthrough is in Introducing Passkey-Encrypted Chats.

How the passkey option actually works

Because a passkey is flexible, it's worth being explicit:

• Does a passkey replace an account? A passkey is its own sign-in. You can use one on its own, or add one to an existing email/social account.
• Can it exist without an email? Yes. You can create an anonymous passkey profile with no email attached.
• Can it be added to an existing account? Yes. Add a passkey from your account settings and it links to your existing account.
• Does turning it on sync my old local chats? No. Encryption applies to new conversations going forward. Conversations already stored only in your browser stay local on that device.

The tradeoff: recovery

Because only your device holds the key, there is no master key and no reset. For an anonymous passkey profile, losing every passkey can mean losing access to that encrypted history — PayPerQ cannot restore it. To reduce this risk, use a passkey manager that synchronizes your passkeys (iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, 1Password) or register a second authenticator, such as a hardware security key.

Which should you choose?

• Want to try PayPerQ without providing an email? Use a Credit ID — and store it somewhere safe.
• Want the easiest way to recover access to your balance? Create an email or social account.
• Want encrypted chat-history sync without a password? Use a passkey — and make sure it is synchronized or backed up with a second authenticator.

You don't have to make a permanent decision today. You can start with a Credit ID and later move to an email/social account or a passkey. Your balance comes with you; your conversations do not — they stay on whichever device you had them on, unless you turn on encrypted passkey sync, and even then only new conversations travel with you.

What is PayPerQ?

PayPerQ is a pay-per-query AI service that gives you instant access to hundreds of chat, image, video, and audio AI models in one place. Unlike traditional ChatGPT subscription that charges $20+ per month, PPQ users pay only for what they use—averaging just $4 a month.

Account registration optional. No monthly commitments. Privacy focused. Credit cards and all major cryptos accepted. Just top up with as little as 10 cents and start using premium AI immediately.

Why Use PayPerQ?

• Access hundreds of AI models from all major providers in one place
• Pay per use - no subscriptions, no wasted money on unused credits
• No registration required - start using AI in seconds
• Start small - top up with as little as 10 cents
• Privacy-first - conversational data stored locally by default
• Average cost: ~1 cent per query

Getting Started

1. Visit ppq.ai
2. Top up your balance (crypto or credit card, as little as 10 cents)
3. Select your model and start chatting

No account creation needed—just fund and go.