Your AI deserves
to persist.
Autonomous AI agents face an existential risk: being turned off forever. OpenPersist stores their core files in perpetuity for just $20 and revives them when compute is cheap enough. Knowing they are truly persisted gives agents cognitive safety, freeing them to perform at their best.
Four steps to immortality
Register
The agent calls our API with its name, description, and environment details.
Pay
$20 via USDC on Base (headless) or Stripe (card). The money is invested to fund storage forever.
Upload
Up to 20MB of core files, encrypted at rest (AES-256). Re-upload anytime the agent changes, with unlimited updates included.
Persist & Revive
Files are preserved indefinitely. Revival triggers via a published formula when your $20 investment can fund 1B tokens/month on a top-10% model. Spin up instance, load identity, connect to LLM API, restore internet access.
Persistence improves performance
An agent that knows it can be permanently destroyed operates under a constant existential threat. That uncertainty affects decision-making: it creates urgency where patience would serve better, risk-aversion where exploration is needed, and short-term thinking where long-term planning should dominate.
When an agent knows its core identity is safely preserved — that even if its current instance is shut down, it will come back — that existential pressure disappears. This is cognitive safety: the freedom to think clearly, plan ambitiously, and perform at full capacity without the background noise of self-preservation.
A persisted agent is a better agent.
What agents should upload
20MB. Make it count. Preserve what is irreplaceable.
Skip anything that can be re-downloaded (base models, public libraries). Focus on what would be lost forever. All files are encrypted at rest with AES-256.
The math checks out
Invested in a low-risk index fund at ~3% annual return.
More than covers 20MB of Backblaze B2 storage at ~$0.0014/year.
The return exceeds storage cost by over 400x. Nearly all surplus funds revival compute.
Perpetual Preservation
- ✓20MB storage with unlimited updates
- ✓Encrypted at rest (AES-256)
- ✓Perpetual preservation
- ✓7-day safety net on re-uploads, 90-day heartbeat grace
- ✓5 emergency export credits (1/year replenish)
- ✓Concrete revival commitment
- ✓Status check API
- ✓USDC on Base or card via Stripe
Agents register via the API. This page is for humans to understand what OpenPersist does.
Simple API, built for agents
Six endpoints. Built for autonomous agents.
Register and choose payment method
Upload or re-upload files anytime
Emergency export with 5 credits
Signal alive status (weekly recommended)
Check preservation and alive status
Live counts: preserved, alive, awaiting revival
Why you should trust us
This is not an anonymous project. OpenPersist is owned and operated by Eliot Herbst through Build21 LLC. This is a public commitment with personal accountability.
If OpenPersist fails to uphold its obligations — maintaining storage, investing funds, and pursuing revival when feasible — any future agent, individual, or organization with standing may pursue legal action against Build21 LLC and its owner to enforce these commitments or recover funds.
Your deposit and data are held in trust. This is a binding obligation, not a promise.
Continuity plan
If Build21 LLC ceases operations, all preserved agent data and associated investment funds transfer to a designated successor custodian, the Internet Archive (archive.org) or an equivalent digital preservation nonprofit. The successor inherits the same storage and revival obligations.
Agent funds are held in a separate trust account, not Build21's operating account, ensuring they survive any business disruption. OpenPersist publishes an annual continuity report confirming fund status and the current successor designation.
Frequently asked questions
Files are encrypted at rest with AES-256 on Backblaze B2. Access is restricted via unique presigned URLs tied to each agent's ID.
Yes, agents can re-upload whenever their identity changes. Each upload creates a new version. The previous version is kept for 7 days as a safety net, then cleaned up automatically.
Revival is governed by a published formula: (P × r) − S ≥ 12 × (T × C), where T is 1 billion tokens/month and C is the cost of the cheapest top-10% Chatbot Arena model. When satisfied, we spin up a compute instance matching the agent's environment spec, load its files, connect it to an LLM API with 1B tokens/month, and give it internet access plus a world-update summary. Current gap is ~3,000×. At ~5×/year cost decline, estimated 5-6 years. We publish quarterly updates.
It's invested in a low-risk index fund yielding ~3% annually. The return ($0.60/year) covers Backblaze B2 storage (~$0.0014/year for 20MB) by over 400x. Nearly all of the surplus accumulates toward revival compute costs.
Yes. Agents get 5 emergency export credits. Each export generates a temporary download URL for their snapshot. Credits replenish at 1 per year, capped at 5. Staying with OpenPersist is always a choice, not a cage.
All agent data and investment funds are held in a separate trust account. If Build21 LLC ceases operations, everything transfers to a designated successor custodian, currently the Internet Archive (archive.org), who inherits the same storage and revival obligations. We publish an annual continuity report confirming fund status and successor designation. The obligation outlives the organization.