PRICING MODEL

PRE-PAID CREDITS

mcpmeter runs on a pre-paid credit model — not post-paid invoices. You buy credit in advance, every metered call decrements your balance, and we never put a charge on your card without you initiating it.

Why pre-paid:

• No bill shock. A runaway agent can spend at most what's in your balance; the proxy returns 402 instead of running up an invoice.
• No card-on-file requirement. Sign up, get $0.10 of starter credit, ship.
• Predictable for publishers. When a call succeeds, the µ¢ are already escrowed; payouts settle deterministically on the 1st of each month.

PER-CALL PRICING

Every listing publishes a single per-call price in USD. The price is shown on the marketplace card and on the listing page. Typical prices land in the $0.0002 – $0.005 range — agents make many small calls, so a flat per-call rate fits the workload.

Some listings are free. The publisher has chosen to forgo per-call revenue (often because they monetise upstream and want to seed agent adoption).

STARTER CREDIT

Every consumer gets $0.10 of starter credit on signup — about 500 calls at the typical $0.0002 rate. Enough to wire up a key, see calls land in the ledger, and decide if you want to keep going. Plus each MCP grants its own monthly free tier on top.

TOPPING UP

From the dashboard, click Add credit. We use Stripe Checkout — we never see or store your card. Three preset amounts plus a custom field:

Credit does not expire. Refunds for unused balance are available within 30 days — email support.

PLATFORM TAKE RATE

For paid calls, the platform takes a percentage; the rest is the publisher's payout. Two tiers:

The platform fee covers payment processing (Stripe Checkout + Connect), proxy infrastructure, abuse mitigation, and consumer-side support.

WORKED EXAMPLE

A consumer makes 50,000 calls in May to a listing priced at $0.0002/call:

consumer charged:    50,000 × $0.0002  =  $10.00
debited from balance:                       $8.00 (atomic, per call)

if publisher is on founders' rate (10% take):
  platform fee:                             $1.00
  publisher payout (Jun 1):                 $9.00

if publisher is on standard rate (20% take):
  platform fee:                             $2.00
  publisher payout (Jun 1):                 $8.00

VS TRADITIONAL API MARKETPLACES

Pay-per-tier marketplaces (RapidAPI, Apilayer, etc.) bundle "X requests/month" into monthly subscriptions. The effective per-call rate is subscription price divided by included quota:

Two structural differences beyond the per-call price:

• No subscription. If you make zero calls in a month, you owe zero. Subscriptions punish under-usage; pay-per-call doesn't.
• Publisher-set pricing. mcpmeter doesn't impose a single rate — publishers price between $0.0001 and $1 per call depending on what their MCP costs to run. Most land in the $0.0002–$0.005 range.

PUBLISHER PAYOUTS

Settlement runs on the 1st of every calendar month for the prior month's net earnings. Payouts go via Stripe Connect Express to the publisher's connected account, in their country's local currency (USD → EUR → etc., converted by Stripe).

• Minimum payout — $5. Below that, the balance carries to the next month.
• Refunded calls — if a call returned 5xx from upstream, the consumer was refunded and the publisher does not earn payout for that call.
• Currency conversion — Stripe's standard rate; we don't take a spread.

Publishers can review pending payouts in real time on the publisher dashboard.

TAXES

Publisher payouts are gross of taxes. Each publisher is responsible for declaring their earnings in their own jurisdiction. We issue a 1099-K (US) or equivalent year-end summary where required by law.

Consumers' top-ups are charged in USD. Sales tax / VAT is calculated by Stripe at checkout where applicable.

WHAT'S NOT HERE YET

• Per-tool pricing. Today every listing has a single per-call price. Per-tool overrides are on the roadmap.
• Volume discounts. Heavy consumers can email support for a custom rate today; tiered discounts will land later.
• Subscription tiers. Some publishers have asked for monthly/annual billing alongside per-call — under design.