Escrow and metering

AmpleRun uses a prepaid ledger and funded rental budgets. A reservation holds credit for the requested work; metering turns accepted runtime into a charge; settlement records the charge, platform fee, and host share.

Quote, hold, charge

1. A quote snapshots price and terms. It neither reserves a machine nor holds money.
2. A reservation binds the quote to a rental and holds funded budget from the account.
3. Readiness establishes when the runtime meter may begin.
4. Accepted metering evidence contributes runtime to the ledger’s charge calculation.
5. A stop or terminal outcome ends execution and is reflected in the rental and receipt.

The budget is a ceiling for that funded rental, not a mandatory charge. Explicit funded extensions change the ceiling and must be separately authorized. A request that never reaches verified readiness has no runtime charge.

Time and money

The ledger accounts for accepted runtime in milliseconds and money in integer micro-units. Clients should display the server’s charge rather than estimating an authoritative bill from a browser clock.

An offer’s rate is for the whole machine. The quote freezes its applicable rate and fee. The current published fee is 10% of the charge, included in the listed price; the receipt’s platform_fee_bps and itemized amounts record the rental’s actual split.

A receipt includes accepted_runtime_ms, charge_micro, fee_micro, host_micro, and journal references. These values make the result inspectable. They are not a public performance benchmark or proof that a task’s output is correct.

Availability and disputes

Interruption policy is part of the offer and quote. An Interruptible rental may need to checkpoint and recover elsewhere; the escrow mechanism does not remove that operational risk.

A pending deposit, confirming credit, live rental hold, disputed amount, and withdrawable balance are different ledger states. Use the billing fields for the decision you are making. Do not treat account-total credit as an amount that can always be spent or withdrawn immediately.

For unexpected charges or failed work, retain the rental ID and open a case. The receipt and lifecycle evidence are more useful than an unsupported promise about the result.