How Spinwage works

Everything you need to know — installing, earning, getting paid, what we do (and pointedly don't do) with data, and how advertisers book the line.

What is Spinwage For developers Earnings Payouts Privacy For advertisers FAQ

What is Spinwage?

Spinwage is an EU ad network for the one screen every developer stares at dozens of times a day: the AI coding agent wait screen. While Claude Code (or Codex) is thinking, your status line shows a single tasteful, clickable sponsored message. Advertisers pay for that attention — and 50% of every euro settles to your balance. No banners, no popups, no tracking. One line, while you wait.

That's the whole footprint: the sponsored line, your running balance, your model. Nothing else changes.

For developers

Install

One command. It wires the official Claude Code statusLine setting — no patches, no forks, fully reversible.

npx spinwage install

Flags

FlagWhat it does
--with-spinner Also sets spinnerVerbs, so the sponsored line can appear in the spinner area as well as the status line. Both are official Claude Code settings.
--codex Installs for the Codex CLI instead of Claude Code. Same single-line format, same earnings.
--ref CODE Attaches a referral code at install time, crediting the developer who referred you.
npx spinwage install --with-spinner --ref CODE

What the status line shows

Exactly three things: the current sponsored message (clickable), your running Spinwage balance, and your active model. The line refreshes at most once per minute from a local cache — your terminal stays fast.

Claim your device

The installer assigns your machine an anonymous device id. It earns from the first impression — no sign-up needed. When you want to see (and withdraw) your balance, link it to an account:

  1. Run npx spinwage status and copy the device id it prints.
  2. Sign in on the dashboard — email plus a 6-digit code, no password.
  3. Paste the device id into Claim device. Everything the device earned before claiming is already on its balance.

A device can only belong to one account. You can claim as many devices as you own — work laptop, home machine, the lot — and they all roll up to one balance.

Uninstall

npx spinwage uninstall

Restores your previous statusLine (and spinnerVerbs, if you used --with-spinner) byte-for-byte from the backup taken at install. Your settings end up exactly as they were, and the device stops earning immediately. Any unclaimed balance stays claimable if you reinstall later on the same device id.

Earnings mechanics

50%Revenue share

Half of every euro an advertiser spends on your screen settles to your balance. No tiers, no thresholds, no fine print.

45sImpression cap

One paid impression per ad at most every 45 seconds per device. Idling on the wait screen doesn't multiply earnings — real attention does.

50×Click multiplier

A click on the sponsored line pays 50× the impression rate. One genuine click is worth a lot more than a glance.

20/dayClick cap

Max 20 paid clicks per device per day. Clicks beyond that still work — they just don't earn. Keeps the network honest and CPMs high.

The caps aren't there to shortchange you — they're what makes advertisers trust the inventory, which is what keeps bids (and your 50%) up. Earnings are tracked in real time; your balance updates on the dashboard and right there in your status line.

Payouts

Sign in to the dashboard to check your balance and request a payout.

Privacy

Spinwage is built so that the privacy answer is boring:

For advertisers

How bidding works

Spinwage runs a simple open auction on CPM. The highest active bid serves across the network; ties rotate evenly between the tied campaigns. There's an anonymized bid ladder on the advertise page so you always know where your bid stands — no black-box auction, no "bid more" upsell calls. Clicks are billed at 50× the impression rate, every campaign has a hard budget cap, and you can cancel anytime.

From booking to live

  1. Create your campaign on the advertise page: ad text (8–80 characters), target URL (https), CPM bid (min €1), budget (min €10). It starts as pending.
  2. Payment. We send a prepayment invoice — a proper German invoice with VAT — to your billing email. Card checkout is coming soon.
  3. Active. On payment receipt your campaign goes live and competes in the auction. Spend, impressions, and clicks update on your campaign table; serving stops automatically at your budget cap.

EU-entity friendly

FAQ

Does Spinwage slow down my terminal?

No. The status line renders from a local cache and fetches a new ad line at most once per minute, asynchronously. Your agent's response time and your typing latency are untouched — if the network is down, the cached line keeps rendering and your terminal doesn't notice.

What does it cost me as a developer?

Nothing — it's the opposite direction. Installing is free, there are no fees, and you receive 50% of the ad revenue your screen generates. Payouts are free SEPA transfers.

Can Anthropic ban this?

Spinwage uses only the official, documented Claude Code configuration: the statusLine setting and (optionally) spinnerVerbs. No binary patching, no API interception, no terms-of-service gray zones. It's the same mechanism any custom status line script uses — we just put something valuable in it. And uninstall restores your previous configuration byte-for-byte at any time.

Is this GDPR-okay?

Yes, and by design rather than by consent banner. Before you claim a device we hold only an anonymous device id and impression counts — no personal data at all. After claiming, we hold your email and (if you request a payout) your IBAN, processed in Frankfurt (eu-central-1), never leaving the EU. We never see your code, prompts, or completions, so there is nothing sensitive to leak in the first place. DPA available for advertisers on request.

When does my campaign go live?

As soon as your prepayment arrives. New campaigns are pending until the invoice (German VAT invoice, sent to your billing email) is paid — then they switch to active and start competing in the auction immediately. Activation is manual in v0, typically same business day; Stripe card checkout is coming soon and will make it instant.

Does it work with Codex?

Yes. Install with npx spinwage install --codex and you get the same single sponsored line in the Codex CLI, with the same 50% revenue share and the same uninstall guarantee. Running both Claude Code and Codex on one machine? Both count toward the same device balance.

What about IDE integrations (VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains)?

If your IDE runs Claude Code's terminal integration, the status line — and Spinwage — comes along for free, since it's just the official statusLine setting. Dedicated support for IDE-native agent panels is on the roadmap; the terminal is where the wait-screen attention is today, so that's where we started.

How do I remove it completely?

Run npx spinwage uninstall. It restores your previous status line configuration byte-for-byte from the backup made at install, and all network activity stops immediately. If you have an unclaimed balance, it stays attached to your device id in case you ever come back; if you claimed the device, the balance is on your account and remains payable.

Ready?

Open your dashboard Book the line