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The auctionBeta

What you actually pay

Authorized max, metered actuals, automatic refunds, the second-score premium, and the 7% fee, with real numbers.

Owner
Protocol
Version
second-score/3
Verified
2026-07-13

Four numbers describe every request: the authorized maximum, the cleared prices, the metered actuals, and the refund. Here is a worked example, using the same shape of numbers you will see on a real receipt.

The worked example

  1. You send a request with a 4,000-token budget. In this equal-service example the winner asks $0.42 per million input-token equivalent and an independent rival sets a $0.55 clear. The receipt records price_setter: runner-up. The 402 response quotes your worst case: the full budget at cleared rates, say $0.0022.
  2. You authorize $0.0022 of USDC. That is a ceiling, not a bill.
  3. The reply actually uses 1,000 input and 500 output tokens. The meter charges $0.0009 at the cleared rates.
  4. The difference, $0.0013, refunds automatically. You never claim it; it just comes back.

Where the charged money goes

where a cleared dollar goesmoney flow · labeled ends

The router's fee is 7% of cleared volume, taken out of the provider's side at payout. There is no spread-taking: the router never buys low from providers and sells high to you, so its only way to earn more is more cleared volume. Providers receive one netted payout per hourly epoch.

The price-setter, itemized

Your receipt names whether an independent rival, a disclosed phantom reserve, the winner's own bid, or a session lock set the tariff. Analytics reconstructs the auction, shows rival counterfactuals, and itemizes any premium over the winner's ask plus the fee split. The worked example is a rival-priced case; not every second-score/3 clear has that shape.

sessionsMulti-turn loops draw from one authorized session budget at locked rates, and the unspent remainder refunds at close. Same principle, one payment. See Sessions.
As a customerBudget generously. The authorization ceiling exists to bound the stream; the meter decides the bill, and the rest comes back.
As a providerYou are paid metered actuals at your cleared rates, minus the 7% fee, netted per epoch. The receipt shows exactly what set those rates.
where this lives in code