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How to Use MegaNova with OpenClaw

Jace Nguyen

• 5 min read
How to Use MegaNova with OpenClaw

Access 100+ AI models through one API — at a fraction of what you'd pay for Claude or OpenAI.

What is MegaNova?

MegaNova is an API gateway that gives you access to 100+ AI models — DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, and more — through a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint. No need to manage separate accounts or billing with each provider.

Why Use MegaNova?

One API, massive cost savings

Models like DeepSeek-V3.2 and Qwen3.5-Plus deliver strong results at a tiny fraction of Claude or OpenAI pricing. MegaNova lets you access all of them with one key.

Model

MegaNova Price (Input / Output per 1M tokens)

vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

vs Claude Opus 4.5

DeepSeek-V3.2

$0.26 / $0.38

~97% cheaper

~98% cheaper

MiniMax-M2.5

$0.30 / $1.20

~90% cheaper

~94% cheaper

Kimi-K2.5

$0.40 / $2.20

~82% cheaper

~89% cheaper

Qwen3.5-Plus

$0.40 / $2.40

~80% cheaper

~88% cheaper

GLM-5

$0.80 / $2.56

~79% cheaper

~87% cheaper

Claude Sonnet 4.5: $2.40 / $12.00 · Claude Opus 4.5: $4.00 / $20.00

Other benefits

  • One API key for 100+ models — no juggling provider accounts
  • OpenAI-compatible endpoint — drop-in replacement, works with any OpenAI SDK
  • Unified billing and usage tracking across all models
  • Free daily quota — test every model before spending a cent

Free Quota — Test OpenClaw for Free

MegaNova's free tier is perfect for trying out OpenClaw before committing any money.

What you get

Details

Daily messages

550 messages/day (Explorer tier)

Cost

Completely free, no credit card required

Models included

DeepSeek-V3.2, Qwen3.5-Plus, GLM-5, MiniMax-M2.5, and 90+ more

Context windows

Up to 200K tokens (GLM-5)

What can you do with 550 free messages/day?

  • Test OpenClaw for 1–2 weeks with real workloads
  • Evaluate all available models side-by-side
  • Build and test your first agents
  • ~18 messages per hour during active use

Just sign up → get your key → start using OpenClaw. No payment needed.

When you're ready for more volume:

Tier

Requirement

Daily Quota

Explorer

Free

550 messages/day

Creator

$1 deposit

1,600 messages/day

Hero

$10 spend

2,900 messages/day

Legend

$100 spend

5,200 messages/day

Setup (5 Minutes)

Step 1: Get Your API Key

  1. Go to meganova.ai
  2. Sign up (free, no credit card needed)
  3. Copy your API key from the Dashboard

Step 2: Configure OpenClaw

Choose Option A (interactive wizard) or Option B (manual config):

Option A: Use the Onboarding Wizard

openclaw onboard

When prompted, select the following options:

  1. Where will the Gateway run? → Local (this machine)
  2. Select sections to configure → Model
  3. Model/auth provider → Custom Provider
  4. API Base URL → https://api.meganova.ai/v1
  5. API Key → Paste your MegaNova API key
  6. Endpoint compatibility → OpenAI-compatible
  7. Model ID → Enter your model (e.g. moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5 or deepseek/DeepSeek-V3.2)
  8. Model alias (optional) → Set a shortcut name (e.g. kimi, deepseek)

The wizard will verify your endpoint and confirm the setup.

Option B: Edit Config Directly

Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and add the MegaNova provider block:

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "meganova": {
        "baseUrl": "https://api.meganova.ai/v1",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_MEGANOVA_API_KEY",
        "api": "openai-completions",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5",
            "name": "Kimi K2.5",
            "contextWindow": 128000,
            "maxTokens": 262144
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "meganova/moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then restart OpenClaw:

openclaw gateway restart

Step 3: Set Your Default and Fallbacks

# Set DeepSeek as primary (best value)

openclaw models set meganova/deepseek/DeepSeek-V3.2

# Add Kimi as fallback

openclaw models fallbacks add meganova/moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5

Step 4: Test It

openclaw chat "Hello, test message"

If you get a response, you're good to go! ✅

Quick Picks

Model

Best For

Cost (per 1M tokens)

Free Tier

DeepSeek-V3.2

Daily driving, coding

$0.26 / $0.38 ⭐

✅ Yes

Kimi-K2.5

Long documents, research (128K context)

$0.40 / $2.20

✅ Yes

GLM-5

Complex reasoning (200K context)

$0.80 / $2.56

✅ Yes

Qwen3.5-Plus

Multimodal (images + text)

$0.40 / $2.40

✅ Yes

MiniMax-M2.5

Fast responses, chat

$0.30 / $1.20

✅ Yes

By Use Case

🎭 AI Character RP / Chatbots:

💻 Coding / Development:

  • Primary: DeepSeek-V3.2 (excellent at code generation)
  • Fallback: GLM-5 (reasoning enabled for complex logic)
  • Alternative: Qwen3.5-Plus (good for debugging)

📚 Research / Document Analysis:

🎨 Multimodal (Images + Text):

⚡ Fast Responses Needed:

🏢 Production / Enterprise:

My Personal Setup

{
  "primary": "meganova/deepseek/DeepSeek-V3.2",
  "fallbacks": [
    "meganova/moonshotai/Kimi-K2.5",
    "meganova/zai-org/GLM-5"
  ]
}

Why this combo?

  • DeepSeek-V3.2: ~97% cheaper than Claude Sonnet, handles most tasks well
  • Kimi-K2.5: 128K context backup for long documents
  • GLM-5: 200K context with reasoning for complex tasks

Code Example

from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.meganova.ai/v1",
    api_key="sk-YOUR_KEY"
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="deepseek/DeepSeek-V3.2",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

TL;DR

  1. Sign up free at meganova.ai
  2. Run openclaw onboard to configure MegaNova as your provider
  3. Use your 550 free daily messages to test everything
  4. Save 80–98% compared to Claude or OpenAI pricing

Questions? Check docs.meganova.ai or ask in Discord.

Setup time: ~5 minutes

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