# Testing an AI API from a country where the official card checkout keeps failing

> Source: <https://dev.to/seven7763/testing-an-ai-api-from-a-country-where-the-official-card-checkout-keeps-failing-3ob8>
> Published: 2026-07-13 08:01:16+00:00

Disclosure and availability:DaoXE is a multi-model, multi-protocol API gateway we operate (OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses, Anthropic Messages / Claude protocol, and image-generation-compatible endpoints — not OpenAI-only, not Claude-only). It isnotavailable in mainland China. This article is for developers in regions allowed by the service terms. The checklist works for any OpenAI-compatible gateway, not just DaoXE.

If you build software from Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, or a dozen other places, you know a failure mode that rarely shows up in English tutorials: the model works fine, but the **billing page** doesn't. An international card gets declined, a region isn't in the dropdown, or a subscription won't activate. The code is not the problem. The checkout is.

This post is the practical checklist I use when the goal is "get a real request through," separate from "argue with a payment form." It assumes you route through a gateway that already handles billing in a way you can actually complete, and it focuses on proving the integration is correct.

Write them down as two different problems:

Most "the API is broken" reports are actually one of these wearing the other's clothes. A gateway that accepts a payment method you can complete solves the first. This checklist solves the second.

Do not start inside your app. Start with the smallest possible call. Discover a model first — do not paste a model name from a blog:

```
export DAOXE_API_KEY="your_api_key"
export DAOXE_BASE_URL="https://daoxe.com/v1"

# what can this account actually call?
curl --fail-with-body --show-error --silent \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DAOXE_API_KEY" \
  "$DAOXE_BASE_URL/models"
```

Then one tiny Chat Completions request (keep `max_tokens`

small; it may be billed):

```
export DAOXE_MODEL="paste_exact_id_from_the_list"

curl --fail-with-body --show-error --silent \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DAOXE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"model\":\"$DAOXE_MODEL\",\"max_tokens\":8,\"messages\":[{\"role\":\"user\",\"content\":\"Reply with OK.\"}]}" \
  "$DAOXE_BASE_URL/chat/completions"
```

A multi-protocol gateway can speak more than one dialect. Your client usually speaks exactly one:

| Client | Protocol to verify | Path |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI SDK, many IDE "OpenAI Compatible" fields | Chat Completions | `https://daoxe.com/v1` |
| Newer agent stacks | Responses | `/v1/responses` |
| Claude Code, Anthropic SDK, Messages-only tools | Anthropic Messages | `/v1/messages` |
| Image tools | image generation | `/v1/images/generations` |

If you configure the wrong dialect, you get auth or 404 errors that look like a billing problem but are not.

Because the whole point is that checkout is painful where you are, do not waste balance during setup:

`max_tokens`

at 8 during smoke tests`/v1/models`

instead of shipping a stale hardcoded listIf your tool is Claude Code, you point it at the gateway with two environment variables (host root, not `/v1`

):

```
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://daoxe.com"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="your_api_key"
claude
```

Full native setup, including the `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`

vs `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`

gotcha, is here: [CLAUDE_CODE.md](https://github.com/seven7763/DaoXE-AI/blob/main/CLAUDE_CODE.md).

It is a way to stop conflating "I can't complete the checkout" with "the API doesn't work for me." They are different problems and only one of them is in your code.