# Escrow and metering

Follow credit from reservation hold through accepted runtime to the receipt.

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](https://docs.amplerun.com/billing/budgets-and-receipts.md) 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 Do not treat account-total credit as an amount that can always be spent or withdrawn immediately.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](https://docs.amplerun.com/support.md). The receipt and lifecycle evidence are more useful than an unsupported promise about the result.

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Last reviewed: 2026-10-19.
Canonical: https://docs.amplerun.com/concepts/escrow-metering/