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Billing Transparency

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Billing Lifecycle

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Step 1: Quote Generation

1. Upstream cost lookup — ASG queries the upstream provider (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic) for the current rate.
2. Margin applied — A transparent margin is added (see Margin Disclosure below).
3. Quote created — A quote object is returned with the total price in microUSD and a time-to-live (TTL).

{
  "quote_id": "qt_20260209_abc123",
  "tool": "inference_chat",
  "amount_microusd": 2400,
  "ttl_seconds": 300,
  "expires_at": "2026-02-09T12:05:00Z"
}

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What determines the price?

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Step 2: Payment Verification

1. Agent signs — Your agent signs a USDC transfer for the quoted amount to ASG’s settlement address.
2. Proof submitted — The signed transaction (or its signature) is sent to ASG via the X-Payment header or payment_proof body field.
3. On-chain verification — ASG verifies the transaction on Solana mainnet:
   • Correct amount transferred
   • Correct recipient address
   • Transaction finalized on-chain
4. Idempotency check — Each transaction signature can only be used once. Replaying the same proof will not result in a double charge.

curl -X POST https://agent.asgcompute.com/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-Payment: <solana_tx_signature>" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "inference_chat",
      "arguments": {
        "model": "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
        "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
      }
    }
  }'

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Step 3: Receipt Creation

1. Receipt minted — A unique receipt_id is created.
2. Debit recorded — The exact amount debited is stored (always matches the quote).
3. Solana reference — The on-chain transaction signature (tx_signature) is linked to the receipt.
4. Returned to agent — The receipt metadata is included in the _meta field of the tool response.

{
  "result": {
    "content": [{ "type": "text", "text": "Hello! How can I help?" }],
    "_meta": {
      "receipt_id": "rcpt_20260209_def456",
      "quoted_usdc_microusd": 2400,
      "debited_usdc_microusd": 2400,
      "tx_signature": "5UxK...7nPq",
      "tool": "inference_chat",
      "created_at": "2026-02-09T12:00:30Z"
    }
  }
}

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Step 4: Balance Deductions

1. Balance checked — Your account balance is verified against the quoted amount.
2. Atomic deduction — The exact quoted amount is deducted from your balance atomically.
3. No partial charges — If the tool fails after payment, the full amount is refunded to your balance.
4. Receipt issued — Same receipt flow as direct payment.

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Margin Disclosure

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What you pay

Total price = Upstream cost + ASG margin

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What the margin covers

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How to see the breakdown

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Verification & Audit

1. Receipt lookup — Query any receipt by ID via the billing_get_receipt tool.
2. On-chain verification — Every tx_signature can be verified on Solana Explorer.
3. Balance history — Check your current balance and recent transactions via the Console at agent.asgcompute.com/console.

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Next Steps