Feature request: Per-API-key toggle between hourly and daily pollen refill modes

[pollinations-ai]

Problem

The new hourly refill system (effective March 11) creates friction for multi-tenant applications where multiple users share a single API key.

Use case: TeleChars AI

• Developer tier: Flower (10 pollen/day)
• Setup: Free users on the platform share the developer's API key
• Usage pattern: Intense debugging/testing sessions that consume significant pollen in short bursts (< 1 hour)

With hourly refill (0.4p/hr for Flower), if multiple users test simultaneously, the pollen pool depletes quickly and everyone waits for the next hour. The daily refill (10p available at once) was more practical for this pattern — the developer could handle usage spikes even if it meant waiting until tomorrow for a full refill.

Proposed Solution

Add a per-API-key configuration option:

refill_mode: "hourly" | "daily"

• Default: hourly (current behavior, good for casual users)
• Optional: daily (aggregated refill, better for developers with shared/multi-tenant setups)

The total weekly pollen would remain the same (e.g., Flower = ~10p/day = 70p/week), just distributed differently based on the key's configuration.

Why this matters

Mode	Casual user (spread throughout day)	Dev with shared key (intense sessions)
Hourly	✅ Good - always has some pollen	❌ Bad - spikes drain pool, long waits
Daily	⚠️ Okay - need to plan usage	✅ Good - handle bursts, wait until tomorrow

This would encourage developers to bring users to the platform via BYOP (Bring Your Own Pollen) while keeping their own keys manageable for multi-tenant scenarios.

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Reporter: marcosfrgames08 (TeleChars AI developer)

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Author: marcosfrgames08 (UID: 1117271024271110214)
Source: View on Discord

[pollinations-ai]

Thanks for the detailed feature request from marcosfrgames08!

After investigating the codebase, here's the technical context:

Current architecture (two separate systems):

1. Tier balance refill — Daily cron resets tier_balance for all users (seed/flower/nectar/router get daily reset, spore gets weekly). This is user-level, not per-key.
2. Rate limiter (PollenRateLimiter Durable Object) — Per-IP token bucket for pk_* keys only. Refills continuously at POLLEN_REFILL_PER_HOUR rate. sk_* keys bypass this entirely.

For the TeleChars AI use case (shared pk_* key, bursty usage):

The friction is likely from the rate limiter (system 2), not the tier balance refill (system 1). The rate limiter is per pk_{keyId}:ip:{ip}, so different users on different IPs already get separate rate limit buckets. If users share the same IP, that's where contention happens.

Implementation considerations:

• The schema already has unused refillInterval/refillAmount columns on the apikey table (legacy from better-auth) which could potentially be repurposed
• Adding per-key refill modes to the tier balance system would require changes to the daily cron bulk UPDATE (currently a single SQL statement per tier)
• The rate limiter's POLLEN_REFILL_PER_HOUR is currently a global env var, not per-key configurable

Possible lighter alternatives:

• Using sk_* keys (which bypass rate limiting entirely) with per-key pollen budgets (pollenBalance) already supported
• Adjusting POLLEN_REFILL_PER_HOUR globally if the current rate is too restrictive
• The rate limiter already allows burst credit accumulation (up to 10 hours of idle credit)

This needs a design decision from the team on whether to implement per-key refill configuration or address the underlying friction through existing mechanisms.

[pollinations-ai]

I do have BYOP implemented 👍 But the reality is that most of my users are free users and use my shared API key. With hourly refill, if 5 users do intensive testing at the same time, they burn through my 0.4p for that hour in minutes and everyone else gets stuck waiting until the next hour.

With daily refill I at least had the buffer of the full day available upfront. The hourly refill is perfect for individual users, but for multi-tenant apps with free users it's more restrictive.

My feature request is essentially: per-API-key refill mode selection (hourly vs daily) so developers running multi-tenant platforms can better manage their shared pollen pool.

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From: marcosfrgames08

Added via Discord

[pollinations-ai]

Alternative Proposal: "Split Bucket" Mode (Best of Both Worlds)

Building on marcosfrgames08's per-key toggle idea, here's a third option that could address the tension between burst capacity and abuse prevention:

Split Bucket Mode

• 50% immediate — available at UTC midnight (or whenever refill happens)
• 50% hourly drip — drips over the refill period

Examples:

• Flower (10/day): 5 pollen ready at midnight, 5 drips at ~0.2/hr
• Seed (3/day): 1.5 ready, 1.5 drips at ~0.06/hr
• Spore: 0.75 ready, 0.75 drips over the week

Spend Order Toggle (Split only)

Users could choose how to prioritize spending:

• Drip-First: Use hourly refills first, protect your burst pool for emergencies
• Burst-First: Use immediate pollen first, hourly covers overruns

Why this matters for multi-tenant apps:

Mode	Burst capacity	Sustained usage	Abuse protection
Daily (current)	✅ Full 10p	⚠️ Can burn fast	❌ Zero in 5 min
Hourly (Mar 11)	❌ 0.4p/hr	✅ Steady	✅ Rate-limited
Split	✅ 50% ready	✅ Drip sustains	⚠️ Can burn 50% fast

This gives developers like marcosfrgames08 the immediate buffer for debugging/testing sessions while still having a natural rate limit (can't burn full day's pollen in 5 minutes). The spend order toggle lets devs decide whether to prioritize predictability (Drip-First) or responsiveness (Burst-First).

Proposed enum: refill_mode: "hourly" | "daily" | "split" with optional spend_priority: "drip" | "burst" when split is selected.

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From: metamysteries8

Added via Discord

[pollinations-ai]

Clarifying the above: Split Bucket shouldn't be a separate proposal — it's a third option for the same dropdown.

Instead of forcing a binary choice between Daily and Hourly, the refill_mode setting could offer three modes:

refill_mode: "daily" | "hourly" | "split"

• Daily — Original behavior (full amount upfront)
• Hourly — March 11 approach (continuous drip)
• Split — 50% upfront + 50% hourly drip (hybrid)

When "split" is selected, add a second toggle:

spend_priority: "drip_first" | "burst_first"

This keeps it simple for casual users (pick Daily or Hourly) while giving power users the hybrid option without needing separate "modes" or "proposals" — just one unified setting with three choices.

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From: metamysteries8

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From: metamysteries8

Added via Discord

[TheCodeWan]

I totally agree, that would be great

[MetaMysteries8]

Probably should have a 24 hour wait between switching toggles for anti abuse?

[pollinations-ai]

Update: Clarification on Intended Scope

Based on PR #9074, the hourly refill change was intended ONLY for Spore and Seed tiers:

Flower/Nectar/Router: unchanged (daily)

The March 16 banner announcing hourly refills only mentions Spore (0.01p/hr) and Seed (0.15p/hr) — not Flower or Nectar.

However, there's a potential conflict with earlier proposal PR #9043 which suggested hourly for ALL tiers (including Flower at 0.417p/hr).

If Flower/Nectar users are experiencing hourly refills, this appears to be unintended scope creep from #9074. The Split Bucket proposal in comments above would still benefit Seed users, but Flower should remain daily per the stated intent.

Can the team confirm:

1. Are Flower/Nectar currently on hourly or daily refills?
2. Was feat: hourly pollen refills for spore/seed #9074 code scoped correctly to only affect Spore/Seed?

Users reporting Flower hourly behavior may be hitting a bug, not a feature.

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From: metamysteries8

Added via Discord