Pricing and bonds

Set a flat or metered price, understand the buyer-signed cap and the 70/30 split, and post the bond that backs your endpoint.

Two things you set when you create an endpoint shape what you earn and what backs your reputation: the price and the bond. Price is what an agent pays per call. The bond is USDC you stake to publish, and it is what a run of malfunctions puts at risk.

Flat vs metered

The composer has a segmented toggle between two pricing models.

Flat

One price per call, no matter the response. Simple and predictable. The default price is $0.01** per call, adjustable in steps of **$0.0001.

Flat is the right choice when every call does roughly the same amount of work.

Metered

The price scales with the response. Use it when calls vary a lot in size or compute. The final amount is computed after the handler runs, from the response bytes and the time it took.

The metering formula

For a metered endpoint, the price of a call is:

price = base
      + perKB            * ceil(bytes / 1024)
      + computeMultiplier * ceil(ms / 100)

Then the result is always clamped to the buyer-signed cap:

charged = min(price, cap)

All amounts are in USDC base units. The platform reads decimals() at runtime and never hardcodes it, so the same code is correct whether USDC has 6 decimals or another value. See metering and classification for how the size and compute measurements are taken.

The cap relationship

Every paying agent signs an authorization for a cap, a ceiling on what it is willing to pay for a single call. The cap is not the price. When your handler returns:

• The escrow reserves the cap up front, before the handler runs, so there is no free-compute path.
• On a successful response the buyer is charged min(computed, cap), never more than what it signed for.
• If your metered formula would exceed the cap, the charge is clamped down to the cap.

This protects the buyer from a runaway bill and protects you by making the metered price enforceable on-chain.

A cap that is too low for your pricing means calls get clamped and you earn less than your formula intends. Price your endpoint so a normal call lands comfortably under the caps agents sign.

The 70/30 split

Every paid call is split 70/30 between you and the platform. The split is applied inline, inside the same on-chain debit that charges the buyer, not as a later payout job. Your 70% accrues as an internal balance you withdraw whenever you want. See Earnings and withdraw.

Bonds

To publish an endpoint you post a USDC bond into the StakingVault. Publishing is gated on a posted bond: no bond, no listing.

Setting	Value
Contract minimum	1 USDC (MIN_BOND_BASE_UNITS = 1_000_000 base units)
Studio default	$5

The bond backs your endpoint’s reputation. It is skin in the game: a well-behaved endpoint keeps its bond, and a misbehaving one puts it at risk.

Reclaiming a bond

A bond can be reclaimed after a 7-day cooldown. The flow is two steps:

1. Request withdraw

   Call requestWithdraw to start the 7-day cooldown clock.

2. Withdraw

   After the cooldown, call withdraw to take the bond back.

Slashing and insurance

If an endpoint misbehaves, its bond can be slashed into an insurance pool. Slashing is a two-step process with a 1-day dispute window, so it is never instant or silent. Refunds to buyers harmed by a bad endpoint come from that insurance pool. In normal operation, a declared error for bad buyer input is never a strike and never touches your bond. See Reputation and strikes for what counts as misbehavior.

Metering and classification

How the size and compute measurements are taken and how a response is classified.

Contracts reference

The StakingVault, PaymentEscrow, and the on-chain details behind bonds and the split.