Billing operations
How credit balances, usage meters, deposits and invoices fit together. Credits are not escrow money.
Two different kinds of funds
Elpis service credits pay for API usage. Customer treasury assets are governed by custody and chain execution rules.
Starter credit doesn't become cash or USDC that you can withdraw. It reduces service charges recorded against your organization. Funding a payment vault is a separate financial operation.
The prices and free allowance are listed on Pricing, which reads the same implemented meter constants as the service.
How the meter works
Elpis records API calls and qualifying successful actions. A blocked, held or refused decision does not incur the settlement-action charge. Chain gas and independent infrastructure fees are not included.
Charges are recorded in an append-only credit ledger; a correction creates a new record instead of quietly rewriting previous usage.
API request → metering record → period usage
prepaid credit → available balance → eligible chargesUse API usage and Billing to inspect your organization's recorded totals.
Depositing supported USDC
When billing deposits are configured, the authenticated Billing page provides your payment destination and reference. The watcher identifies deposits by unique chain events and waits for the configured confirmation threshold before crediting them.
Billing enforcement
| Setting | Result |
|---|---|
BILLING_ENFORCED=false | Usage can still be measured; prepaid exhaustion isn't enforced as a hard gate. |
BILLING_ENFORCED=true | An insufficient credit balance can block a qualifying request with 402 payment_required. |
| Invoices | Document the metered period; they don't prove an on-chain merchant payment occurred. |
Keep metering and pricing configurations stable within an agreed billing period. Rate changes require deliberate versioning and notice rather than silently repricing earlier usage.