TRMNL: Blog

Creator Fund - October 2026

2026-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

for more context see the Creator Fund announcement.

our 13th payout recognizes community contributions between October 4, 2026 and November 4, 2026.

source of funds

each payout period, a portion of developer-specific revenue goes directly to creators.

source	revenue	share	amount
Stripe Developer Edition BYOD TRMNL+ Shopify Developer Edition Clarity Kit (X) Clarity Kit (OG) BYOD	$4,920 $2,597 $826.60 $588.99 $12,963.99 $12,300.28 $6,808.10	15% 15% 80% 15% 10% 10% 15%	$738 $389.55 $661.28 $88.35 $1,296.40 $1,230.03 $1,021.22
	$41,004.96		$5,424.82

source

revenue

share

amount

Stripe

Developer Edition
BYOD
TRMNL+

Shopify

Developer Edition
Clarity Kit (X)
Clarity Kit (OG)
BYOD

$4,920
$2,597
$826.60

$588.99
$12,963.99
$12,300.28
$6,808.10

15%
15%
80%

15%
10%
10%
15%

$738
$389.55
$661.28

$88.35
$1,296.40
$1,230.03
$1,021.22

$41,004.96

$5,424.82

by the numbers

total payout: $5,424.82
plugin author share: $3,797.37 (70% of total)
strategic contributors share: $1,627.45 (30% of total)

plugin author earnouts are calculated automatically by a collection of factors including a plugin's age (on live playlists), presence (by % dominance on playlists), and impressions (times displayed on device), relative to all other community plugins. there is a minimum threshold of 50 total connections (installs + forks) to qualify for monthly payouts.

strategic contributors are those who contribute to TRMNL open source projects. these earnouts are calculated with a mix of automation + human touch. relative to the funding available, below are allocations by category:

Firmware, 10%
3D Models, 0%
BYOS, 41%
Localizations, 10%
BYOD, 5%
Documentation/Resources, 0%
Tooling, 34%

note: these allocations change monthly based on contributions by category.

algorithm?

see the algorithm in action here. over time the above weights, revenue share percentages, and minimum thresholds may change.

candid feedback is welcome, email team@trmnl.com.

Model X Progress Report

2026-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

We introduced X on July 30, 2025. We began assembly + fulfillment on March 18, 2026.

To see your live spot in the order queue, go here:
https://trmnl.com/order-tracker

Here's our per-warehouse order backlog as of November 4, 2026:

The USA warehouse is shipping same-day, while orders from TRMNL Europe (Berlin) are lagging behind 5-10 business days.

For more frequent and detailed updates over time, see below.

When will I receive my TRMNL X?

Live in USA, Canada, India, Mexico, or Australia?

Your TRMNL will ship from our USA warehouse. As of October 23, 2026 we offer same or next-day X fulfillment, just like our other device models.

Live in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, etc?

Your TRMNL will ship from our Berlin warehouse. Due to Customs issues and supplier theft, this warehouse is moving slower through their queue than the USA. See chronological updates below for the latest availability.

Tech Specs

Highlights below, or see everything here.

10.3" 1872x1404 EPD resolution with 16 shades of gray
Dust and basic waterproofing with a hacker-friendly enclosure
ESP32-S3 with 16MB of flash and 8MB of PSRAM as a core processor with fallback 2.4GHz WiFi
5GHz WiFi support via ESP32-C5 as a modem (external antenna)
Support up to 2x 6000mAh 3.8V LiPo batteries with automatic detection
Battery gas gauge from TI for battery SOC/SOH/capacity tracking
Bosch accelerometer for portrait/landscape orientation
Gesture touch-bar based on Azotech IC
Magnetic pogo pin-based mount for charging and accessories (Coming 2026)
OTG support with 5V 2A output

Dimensions

These values may change as we scale production. last updated December 15, 2025.

X enclosure dimensions (mm)

Weight (device only, no attachments)

1 battery - 362 grams
2 batteries - 448 grams

August 2025

Multiple boards and controllers support touch gestures, battery charging, and 5ghz WiFi
The circular area interfaces with a waterproof "puck" shaped charging connector, and several test points on the motherboard's bottom will let us build a QA jig for our warehouse
Prior to release we'll prototypes to your favorite creators for first-look reviews

September 2025

PCB preview

We ordered 50x more prototypes with stronger magnets so devices can attach directly to a surface (e.g. refrigerator) without mounts
Dual band WiFi will be powered by the ESP32-C5 and we've benchmarked faster speeds + better range with custom modem firmware
Orders with the Battery Upgrade (or Clarity Kit) will now enjoy 10,000mAh versus the announced 7,000mAh variant
Our "charging puck" (name TBD) now has a universal connector for kickstands and other peripheral accessories that will debut in 2026
The same firmware that runs all OG + BYOD devices has been extended and is already running my own X prototype, preview here

October 2025

Grayscale testing with a GOAT

The first batch of screens arrived at our USA warehouse, more en route to our Berlin warehouse
Gesture bar + charging pucks are in small batch production
Received and approved packaging samples. Model X packaging will be more premium and protective than OG packaging.
Consolidating WiFi antennas (2.4 + 5gh) to a single component
Added 3 angle options (degrees) to the kickstand
[Work in progress] battery options may grow another 20% to 6000/12000mAh variants pending more testing

November 2025

Full assembly (3D printed parts, not final)

Fully functional prototype (3D printed case, non-branded silicone pads)

Prototype running latest (public) firmware release

Added extra reset buttons to S3 and C5 MCUs for hacker friendliness, board design is final
Batteries are in production and we can confirm the improved 6k / 12kmAh sizing (announced size: 5k / 7k)
Enclosure injection molds are in production, purchase order placed for thousands of cases in different colors
Magnet deliveries from Chinese factories have been delayed due to recent Critical Mineral Export Bans

December 2025

Battery production complete, shipping to our warehouses next week
EC licenses underway at testing facilities
Packaging in mass production
Magnets in mass production
[New] OTG functionality - power other devices from your TRMNL's charging puck

January 2026

From my desk to yours, a video update.

February 2026

From our warehouse to your desk, a video update.

March 2026

From my desk to yours, a video update.

If you prefer not to watch the video, in summary we're shipping single-battery devices only from our USA warehouse because our magnet supplier ripped us off and sent thousands of weak magnets, following multiple sample shipments with the correct (strong) magnets.

As of Wednesday, March 18:

Berlin warehouse has all 3 types of PCBs
Berlin warehouse should receive device enclosures in 1-2 weeks
USA warehouse has everything and has begun assembly + fulfillment

To check your place in the queue go here:
https://trmnl.com/order-tracker

If you already have a TRMNL, install the Order Tracker plugin to stay up to date:
https://trmnl.com/recipes/260817

How can I estimate the time it will take to receive mine?

Devices will be shipped in the order they were purchased and we intend to scale to 100s of fulfillments per day, as we have done for past releases and back-in-stock periods.

Our 2x warehouses have trained 15+ individuals to flash, assemble, and ship devices. We do not outsource to 3rd party logistics companies. You can learn more about our end to end philosophy and technology here and here.

April 2026

See a live demonstration of strong, N52 grade magnets on various refrigerator surfaces in this video update.

On April 26, N52 magnets arrived at our USA warehouse and assembly/fulfillment pace will increase dramatically beginning Monday, April 27.

On April 27, white + gray cases arrived at our Berlin warehouse and they are building half-assemblies (docks, kickstands) as they await N52 magnets.

May 2026

Between May 2-6th the USA warehouse was out of stock of charging docks for several colors due to a supplier mistake. To mitigate we assembled devices of all colors, but only fulfilled in-stock (charging dock) orders, some of which may sequentially be behind yours.

May 7 - black and sage charging docks arrived, allowing us to mostly ship in sequential order. This ensures the highest throughput overall, as punishing later orders with in-stock colors does not increase the speed of out-of-stock colors arriving.

May 19 - USA warehouse is still awaiting white + gray docks and cannot ship those colors, despite having the other parts. They were lost in transit and a new batch is on the way.

May 21 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received a batch of N52 magnets. They are now shipping black, sage, clear.

May 27 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received white u-mounts and is now able to ship white devices.

May 29 - USA warehouse received missing white charging docks and is finally shipping white devices.

May 31 - USA warehouse ran out of Clear enclosures and sage wall mounts. Black running very low. New shipment (full refresh) expected within a week.

June 2026

June 1 - USA warehouse received missing gray charging docks (sent/lost by UPS on April 7).

June 4 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received gray enclosures.

June 5 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received wood enclosures. Berlin is now able to ship all colors.

June 9 - USA warehouse only has inventory to ship white and gray X devices. More of every color arrive Thursday, June 11.

June 11 - USA warehouse received more inventory of every color and is fully in stock, shipping all X combinations.

June 21 - USA warehouse ran out of clear enclosures; affected customers have been emailed the option to change colors and not experience further delays.

June 24 - USA ran out of sage docks + kickstands, as FedEx lost this package (1 of 42 in our latest freight shipment) in May and is still looking for it. An extra set of components has been ordered (via air express) from our injection mold supplier.

Sage components lost by FedEx

June 29 - Berlin, Germany warehouse ran out of branded packaging. A rush order is en route. The team is still assembling devices to minimize delays.

July 2026

July 3 - USA warehouse received missing Sage docks + kickstands, along with Clear cases. Clear kickstands + docks are still en rout, but the remaining 300+ on-hold Sage orders will be shipped by end of Monday, July 6.

July 7 - Berlin, Germany warehouse received X packaging. Foam should arrive within 24 hours and then shipping will resume.

July 13 - Berlin, Germany warehouse continues experiencing delays in receiving X packaging foam. As of today, 3 of 5 pallets have arrived at BER airport and are still processing through Customs. They have been stuck elsewhere in Europe for 7 days.

July 15 - Berlin, Germany warehouse finally received packaging foam and is resuming shipments of assembled devices.

Die-cut packing foam

July 23 - Berlin, Germany is down to their last ~150 devices and awaiting a new shipment of PCBs, ordered on May 6 but with long lead times. USA warehouse is expecting missing Clear kickstands / docks / u-mounts next Monday, then its queue will be zero'd out.

July 27 - Berlin, Germany received new packaging and is expecting more PCBs tomorrow.

July 30 - Berlin, Germany PCBA are stuck in-country but stuck at Customs. A new batch of PCBA were shipped to USA warehouse and should arrive on August 5th.

August 2026

August 3 - Berlin, Germany received a new batch of PCBA following a week of being stuck in Customs. Shipping resumed today. Incoming USA batch of PCBA cleared Customs last night and arrive on Wednesday.

August 12 - USA warehouse PCBA have cleared Customs, then put on hold, back and forth a few times. We got in touch with courier (DHL) and they don't have more information. As of this morning the freight has again "cleared" Customs.

August 18 - I (Ryan) visited the ATL airport cargo facilities to check on our PCBA freight, which continues to post "Clearance" events, followed by "On Hold" notifications, multiple times per day since early August.

Visiting DHL <> Customs

Unfortunately the assigned CBP agent was not in office, so we left our information with a request to expedite clearance. The DHL team claims we will receive a phone call update within 24 hours.

August 24 - The USA warehouse received a response to our support ticket with DHL / Customs. At this point, our next shipment of PCBA may arrive sooner than the batch that has been in the States since July.

September 2026

September 2 - The USA warehouse still has no update from DHL or the Customs agent assigned to our case (inbound PCBA). Once this shipment arrives, we need just 4-5 days to clear our entire queue and resume same-day X shipping.

September 9 - The USA warehouse received an update from DHL's customer service team, alleging customs will be completed within 3 days.

September 17 - The USA warehouse received a small batch of X PCBA -- our main batch is still stuck in DHL / Customs at the Atlanta airport, this is a followup rush order. X shipping resumed temporarily but we are now awaiting new magnets, set to arrive by sea tomorrow (September 18) and then put on a truck.

September 18 - Berlin, Germany ran out of X screens, but a new shipment is departing our supplier's warehouse (via air express freight) on Monday, September 21.

September 27 - Magnets (USA) and screens (Berlin, Germany) are still en route. Magnets arrived at a port, but no truck tracking is available. For screens we used our fastest boutique broker (not a major courier) who also do not provide last mile tracking.

September 30 - The USA warehouse should receive magnets tomorrow. Logistics company called this morning to schedule a 12-4p drop-off on Thursday, October 1. No other components are missing or low in stock so the queue will be cleared without further hiccups.

October 2026

October 1 - The USA warehouse received magnets we ordered in April. Instead of the 6 weeks we were promised, it took 6 months. Fulfillment resumes tomorrow (Friday, October 2) and the entire queue (~800 orders) should take less than 2 weeks to complete.

TRMNL X N52 magnets

October 8 - Berlin, Germany received notice that screens are under Customs Inspection and may arrive as soon as tomorrow.

October 9 - Berlin, Germany received a new batch of X screens. They can resume some fulfillment but are also awaiting more packaging, which is already in country and being processed by Customs.

October 16 - Berlin, Germany received new packaging and is back in action. The remainder of their queue (~350 orders) will be shipped over the next few business days.

Featured Community Plugin - Dashboards for PostHog

2026-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Dashboards for PostHog

Community member Javier R. Corisco created the Dashboards for PostHog plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

I love Posthog and I use it for my side projects and check my dashboard quite often to see how they're going. I end up just going to the same URL all the time to click refresh and at a glance see the numbers, so I thought that having it automatically being fetched on an e-ink display could save me some time and also look very cool in my setup!

Why were you the person to make it?

I wanted to do it for myself, I tend to do a lot of little side projects for me but I thought I could polish it a bit and make it available for everyone else! I was actually surprised on how easy it is to develop plugins, this is my first one but probably not my last one.

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

Yes! Actually I am a big fan of what Hardcover guys are doing and by using them I saw Jacob Tender's Hardcover Plugin and that was even the thing that made me buy the TRMNL in the first place!

How did you balance look vs functionality?

I think it had to have the perfect balance. There is so much you can do with an e-ink display and data visualization can get complicated very quickly so I made sure to keep things simple and easy to use,

What was your process for creating the plugin?

trmnlp and Agent Skills were my best friends during the development of the plugin! I also use Claude Code.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

Getting the hang of the limitations that the screen size and the e-ink device has was the main challenge, I don't want to oversell it but I was able to find all the answers I needed with the help of the tools I mentioned earlier.

Did you learn anything that you want to apply to future or past recipes?

I want to keep improving this one, there are still some pending to-dos I want to get out of the way, and ideally if people start using it I would love to get some feedback and build around it!

Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?

Just go for it! Start with a simple goal and then work your way to improve it. There is ton of information available even though the community is still relatively small. Also the review team were very very helpful so don't be afraid to ask help from the people.

What part of the TRMNL Framework, Liquid filters, or other documentation was most helpful?

trmnlp for me, it is such a useful tool that made the development experience much better.

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

I already mentioned, the Hardcover one from Jacob Tender. It is a beautifully designed one and the thing that made me buy the device in the first place.

Comparison: OG vs X

2026-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

so you're interested in buying (or building) your own ePaper dashboard.

below is a comparison of our 2x primary device models, from raw specs to anecdotal angles.

OG vs X Specs

you'll notice that X numbers are all bigger. but bigger is not necessarily better. it depends where the device will live and how you'll use it.

	Screen Size	Grayscale	Mounting options	Partial Refresh?	Wi-Fi Bands	Rechargeable Battery
OG	7.5" (19cm)	1-4	kickstand, wall	yes	2.4 GHz	3-6 months
X	10.3" (26cm)	1-16	kickstand, wall, fridge (built-in magnet)	yes	2.4 / 5 GHz	3-6 months

i personally have an OG on my desk and an X on my fridge. the OG has work stuff (meetings, KPIs) while our X has a family calendar and movie trivia. in my opinion the X feels crowded beside a computer monitor.

also worth noting: both models offer soft-touch ABS as well as plain, polycarbonate finishes. but the OG has an engraved TRMNL logo on the front, while the X does not. if you want to redesign or 3D print your own OG enclosure, we open sourced the CAD model.

OG vs X Vibes

TRMNL OG is hackable and personal. with just a single button on the back, it's great for set-and-forget content like the weather or your calendar. our marketplace had ~1,000 plugins before the X was available, so arguably the TRMNL ecosystem is more OG-friendly than X-friendly.

TRMNL X is for sharing and open spaces, like kitchen counters or the wall by your front door. it has a touchbar with a menu system for interactivity, which is great for kids or significant others. X is also ideal for smart home dashboards with Home Assistant or Homey.

both devices support 95% of all features on the TRMNL platform, from playlist scheduling to showing multiple plugins on the same screen, which we call Mashups. but only TRMNL X supports Fluid Mashups, a "bento grid" builder that offers an additional 300+ layout combinations.

another hardware spec stands out here -- if you're interested in art, photos, movie posters, and more graphical (vs text-based) content generally, the X's 16 grayscale provides a richer experience. but even the OG does a pretty good job at grayscale, thanks to how dithering tricks our eyes into seeing colors that don't exist.

for a "best of both worlds" approach, our 4-color BWRY device offers dithering and color for decent family photo albums and artwork. see examples here or get one here (same price as OG).

OG vs X Functionality

as i mentioned, nearly every feature on the web app (+ open source servers) works on all device models.

however! a few things are coming out that will further differentiate the OG vs X user experience. here's a preview.

	Orientation	Environment Sensors	Power "Out"	Data / Power Source
OG	Landscape, Portrait (manual setting)	Temp, Humidity, CO2 (requires soldering)	N/A	Wi-Fi / Battery / USB-C
X	Landscape, Portrait (auto-detection / accelerometer)	Temp, Humidity, CO2, Pressure, etc (Dock accessory)	Power other devices	Wi-Fi / Battery / USB-C / Ethernet

X is also going to dabble in arcade games, although Chess and others are available for all devices.

which is best?

in the words of Malcolm Gladwell: there is no such thing as perfect spaghetti sauce, only perfect spaghetti sauces.

the OG was our first device and its internals will be redesigned over time to incorporate more features (hint: 5 GHz Wi-Fi). it is not an "old model" and will never be discontinued.

the X is our 2nd device and it packs more punch for specific applications, but it is also more expensive.

if you're still having trouble deciding, consider getting both? that's what i did. but i also work here.

Featured Community Plugin - Asteroids

2026-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Asteroids

Community member Michael Geilich created the Asteroids plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

One day this summer I was sitting in my living room when a large bang shook the house. I thought a large tree had fallen in the yard. Then neighbors started texting and reports of others experiencing similar 50 miles away started coming in. Turns out an asteroid had vaporized over Cape Cod. I thought we needed a better heads up as to what was coming - not that there's anything we can do about it.

Why were you the person to make it?

I think someone else would have made this plugin if I hadn't. I just got there first.

How did you balance look vs functionality?

Look was more important. I didn't want the content to look cluttered. I also started with a "radar" view that used polar coordinates to show time/distance instead of an XY graph but it was confusing to others when I showed it to them.

What was your process for creating the plugin?

I vibe-coded this plugin with Gemini Flash using the AntiGravity IDE.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

Most of my trouble is with markup. Gemini Flash is getting better with the TRMNL framework as it learns but I have had to be patient.

Did you learn anything that you want to apply to future or past recipes?

Yes! I had not previously seen the markup controls for landscape/portrait and OG/X. Now I can check all the markup rendering easier. Also, when creating a plugin to serve up 3rd party data, Gemini has developed a common pattern for my plugins. GitHub repository and a Firebase service to render graphics.

Why are you interested in creating plugins?

My kid gave me an OG as a present, knowing that this was an open development platform and that I liked to play with things. I had been teaching vibe-coding to a friend and took a project I had built as a web server - planetfinder - and rewrote it as a plugin just to see what it would take. Then I started to think of other content I wanted to see...

Subject-aware cropping with two tiny ONNX models

2026-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

TRMNL caters to a wide variety of use cases. One that we didn't expect is displaying family photos. Given existing LCD solutions on the market, we never thought monochrome images would be particularly popular. However, as is often the case we were wrong.

Since then we have invested significant engineering time to make photos look better on any ePaper device. TRMNL even acquired a popular photo plugin from a community member to have greater control over how we serve photos.

Inherent constraints

ePaper hardware is limited by the available screen real estate, a.k.a. pixels, and we have to introduce a bit of ingenuity to extract the best outcome. Customers who used photo based plugins (Apple Photos, Google Photos, Google Drive, Dropbox Album) often observed that the photo displayed by TRMNL was not optimal. The content at the center of the photo may not always be the main highlight. This is particularly bad when a landscape-oriented TRMNL device is showing portrait-oriented photos.

Photo by Hale Tat on Unsplash

To overcome this, we previously advised customers to crop their photos to the exact device dimensions. But with a growing fleet of supported devices, this became a pain as a single photo can be displayed in a lot of different resolutions.

Enter ML

Customer photos are sensitive PII. TRMNL needed a solution that is content aware, while also not reliant on third-party services. So we started exploring ML models that are small and fast enough to run on our own servers, and smart enough to detect a human face.

After a lot of experimentation we settled on UltraFace. In our testing, larger models did not perform their face-finding mission any better yet were much slower, so we kept the smallest model. We also wanted a fallback for when a human is not found in the picture, as many images might depict animals, objects, illustrations etc. For this we settled on U²-Net-p to detect saliency.

def center(image) = largest_face_center(image) || salient_subject_center(image)

measured on 500 photos on an Apple M4

Step	Photos	p50	p90	p99	max
UltraFace (runs on every photo)	500	18 ms	20 ms	23 ms	52 ms
U²-Net-p (runs when no large face is found)	487	109 ms	114 ms	129 ms	151 ms

The combination of UltraFace + U²-Net-p means TRMNL is always able to find and crop the most interesting subject in a given photo for the displaying device's resolution.

Results

Here are before/after examples on our native devices. BYOD devices get the same benefits.

Photo by Wenhao Ruan on Unsplash

Photo by Hale Tat on Unsplash

Photo by Laurenz Heymann on Unsplash

Photo by Kevin Mueller on Unsplash

What's next?

No action is required to take advantage of this improvement. It's now live on all photo-based plugins.

Going Coral (Limited Edition Release)

2026-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

it's a privilege to write this post. exactly 2 years ago we began shipping 1,325 Kickstarter preorders, today we're releasing a small batch color run with special perks.

in 2024 we tried Henry Ford's advice, telling customers "any color is fine... as long as it's black." reality (see: comments) quickly overruled that position.

these days we have a bit more latitude. my personal favorite is OG in dark wood, but revenue-wise it's a loser. meanwhile Sage has earned the coveted Wife Approval Status by countless customers. their words, not mine.

so we're 1 for 2. what business do we have messing with paint?

hello Coral

we've always strived to be hacker friendly, tinkerer welcome, repairable and replaceable. underscoring each of these efforts is transparency, starting with the enclosure itself.

TRMNL OG, Coral Edition

clear cases make it easy to know what's inside. the microcontroller, battery, Wi-Fi antenna, and screen are not a secret. to see them up close, open it with the tools from your TRMNL box.

why coral?

back when logos were drawn by hand, Lucian (designer) said "everyone's doing the blue thing." we zigged while Meta zagged, and we landed on #F8654B.

it was kind of an inside joke until it wasn't. people started asking for merch, stickers, jumpsuits. actually that's a good idea.

people also didn't love our logo on the device. "too much branding" they said. so we're doubling down.

buy coral

in all seriousness, these perks are included with every Coral Edition device:

TRMNL+ for 2 years ($100 value)
enough AI Usage Credits to build 100 custom plugins (priceless)
5% of your purchase will be donated to Turks & Caicos Coral Reef Fund
protection against inflation (resell on eBay)

we have 850 in stock and no plans for another batch. there are 500 OGs, 350 Xs, split 60/40 between our American and German warehouses that we operate ourselves. every device is hand assembled by our team.

checkout links

Device	Coral Price	Regular Price
TRMNL OG	$199	$139
TRMNL X	$299	$229

so yeah

i'm not a hype guy. don't buy stuff you don't need. but if you're looking for the easiest way to build ePaper dashboards, with extra bragging rights, consider Coral. he's nice.

Introducing Agent Usage Credits

2026-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Agent no longer requires an API key. starting today, any account with developer edition can build plugins for free with a model we're hosting on your behalf: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash via OpenRouter.

new accounts start with enough credits to build ~5 plugins, and TRMNL+ members get free credits every month, forever. you can also top up an account with $5, $10 or $20 one-time, and connecting your own model is still supported.

How usage credits work

see your live balance at the top of Account › AI Agent. this meter is also visible in the bottom of the Agent panel while you build.

usage credits are spent before tapping into your own model or topped up cash. we add 10% and 30 cents to maintain this service, and this fee is transparent at checkout.

You add	You pay
$5	$5.80
$10	$11.30
$20	$22.30

but again - if you already have an OpenRouter or Anthropic key, nothing changes. add it below Bring your own key and the Agent uses your stack instead.

What a plugin actually costs

we ran several tests with DeepSeek v4. here are results from a one-liner i gave it yesterday (typo included): "make an AirGraident plugin, here's their API: <link>"

AirGradient plugin with TRMNL Framework + Agent Skills

the Agent read the docs and got live data flowing from a public weather station. it asked if i wanted to make it flexible for personal and public monitors, to which i said yes, and boom: custom form fields appeared.

AirGradient plugin form fields

this build took 70 API calls, totaling 2.6 million tokens in and 43,000 out. the token spend was $0.0393.

but AirGradient is just 1 example. this week, people have built plugins for anywhere from 0.6 cents to 10.6 cents, with a median cost of 4.4 cents. with these benchmarks, even a $5 top-up affords ~100 custom dashboards without writing a single line of code.

meanwhile, here's what a typical Agent build costs using other supported models:

Averages from 350+ Agent-assisted plugins

we'll continue to support leading models, but our Framework design system and Agent Skills make DeepSeek an obvious choice for most people and most custom plugins.

Why it's so cheap

we've built or helped build thousands of ePaper dashboards. nearly everything we know about the subject is both open source and well documented. more specifically...

cheap tokens. with OpenRouter, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs ~$0.14 per million input tokens and $0.42 per million output tokens. tokens it already saw in the prompt cost $0.004 per million. since DeepSeek reads images too, which our Agent uses to generate and compare screenshots against Framework CSS expectations.

lean prompt. invoking the Agent includes a set of battle-tested instructions, totaling 168 KB of text, roughly 40,000 tokens, which the provider caches. from my AirGradient test build, 97% of the input tokens were cache reads. across all TRMNL DeepSeek V4.1 Flash chat so far, cache reads account for 87% of input tokens. without this in place, the same plugin would have cost 10x or 39 cents (vs 3.9 cents).

knows how to meet ladies (HTML). with models now being used to cure cancer, they're more than capable of writing HTML and JavaScript. the prompts also make it aware of our {{ liquid }} templating engine and other core features.

Agent doesn't need babysitting

loops. as Agent builds plugins, it pulls reference examples from the public marketplace. it also screenshots layouts and fixes them automatically.

Bring the same skills to your own agent

the instructions and design system our Agent runs on are open source:
usetrmnl/trmnl-agent-skills.

Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add usetrmnl/trmnl-agent-skills
Cursor, OpenCode, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot: drop-in files, see the repo's install guide

pair our Agent Skills with TRMNL's new MCP server and your agent can build plugins, update settings, and take screenshots just like ours. as of this writing, TRMNL's MCP server has answered 174,532 tool calls from 749 people across 1,175 plugins.

Get started

open any private plugin's markup editor, click Agent and describe what you want. if you build something that could help others, consider publishing it and getting paid.

Featured Community Plugin - Word of the Day

2026-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

Word of the Day

Community member bloax (Discord: bl0ax) created the Word of the Day plugin; here are their words on how it was created.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

I really like learning new words, but I found that the default TRMNL plugin for this is too limited, in the sense that it's only available in English, and I felt it could give more information about the word.

Why were you the person to make it?

Other people have already created this kind of plugin, but I found that they suffer from the same problems as the default one. So I took the time to create a plugin with a pleasant UI that gave enough information.

How did you balance look vs functionality?

I tried to find the right balance between a nice UI and functionality. UI matters a lot to me, and I think that's what other plugins of this kind are missing. I also think a better UI improves the plugin's functionality by structuring the information clearly.

What was your process for creating the plugin?

I made a simple mockup of the plugin's UI on Figma, then I looked for data sources for the words and their information. I then adapted the data to automatically fetch the least-used words, then built the API so TRMNL could retrieve the information. Then Claude Code built the layouts based on the mockup, the API and the TRMNL documentation.

What, if any, challenges did you face while creating it?

J'ai eu du mal à trouver une source d'information pour les données sur les mots, c'est compliqué d'avoir assez d'information pour avoir une quantité correcte de mots.

I had a hard time finding a source of information for word data, it's complicated to have enough information to have a correct amount of words.

What part of the TRMNL Framework, Liquid filters, or other documentation was most helpful?

The documentation on Liquid filters helped me a lot, I made heavy use of it to display frames conditionally since the word data isn't always the same.

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

I really like the Art of the Day plugin. I think my TRMNL's screen really does it justice. I'm a fan of plugins whose content changes every day, it's really nice to discover a new work each time.

Creator Fund - September 2026

2026-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

for more context see the Creator Fund announcement.

our 12th payout recognizes community contributions between September 5, 2026 and October 3, 2026.

source of funds

each payout period, a portion of developer-specific revenue goes directly to creators.

source	revenue	share	amount
Stripe Developer Edition BYOD TRMNL+ Shopify Developer Edition Clarity Kit (X) Clarity Kit (OG) BYOD	$3,940 $3,087 $652 $369.53 $10,884.18 $14,388.99 $9,321.35	15% 15% 80% 15% 10% 10% 15%	$591 $463.05 $521.60 $55.43 $1,088.42 $1,438.90 $1,398.20
	$42,643.05		$5,556.60

source

revenue

share

amount

Stripe

Developer Edition
BYOD
TRMNL+

Shopify

Developer Edition
Clarity Kit (X)
Clarity Kit (OG)
BYOD

$3,940
$3,087
$652

$369.53
$10,884.18
$14,388.99
$9,321.35

15%
15%
80%

15%
10%
10%
15%

$591
$463.05
$521.60

$55.43
$1,088.42
$1,438.90
$1,398.20

$42,643.05

$5,556.60

by the numbers

total payout: $5,556.60
plugin author share: $3,889.62 (70% of base total)
strategic contributors share: $1,666.98 (30% of base total)

Firmware, 3%
3D Models, 0%
BYOS, 52%
Localizations, 3%
BYOD, 2%
Documentation/Resources, 0%
Tooling, 40%

note: these allocations change monthly based on contributions by category.

algorithm?

see the algorithm in action here. over time the above weights, revenue share percentages, and minimum thresholds may change.

candid feedback is welcome, email team@trmnl.com.