Pricing and Billing

OpenEdge uses prepaid balance and usage-based billing as the first commercial model. Paid services check balance before execution, record transactions, and refund failed work when appropriate.

Billing Principles

Commercial service calls must be explainable:

1. Check whether the user can pay before work starts.
2. Cap maximum loss during uncertain-cost operations.
3. Settle the final cost after the call.
4. Refund failed work.
5. Write every charge and refund to the ledger.
6. Keep usage logs tied to request IDs and service aliases.

Current Billing Building Blocks

Building block	Purpose
users.balance	Prepaid user balance.
transactions	Ledger for charges, deposits, refunds, and credits.
pricing_rules	Service-level pricing configuration.
ai_usage_logs	AI usage, token counts, status, and cost.
tron_lease_orders	TRON order lifecycle and refund state.

Recommended Pricing

Service	Metric	Suggested price
Bot Service	request/message	$0.001 per request
File Service	upload/download	Starts at $0.01 per upload
Webhook Push	fan-out request	$0.001 per request
TRON Energy Lease	order	Dynamic quote
AI BYOK Chat	request + tokens	$0.0005 + $0.02 / 1M tokens
AI BYOK Stream	request + tokens	$0.0010 + $0.02 / 1M tokens
AI Managed	upstream cost multiplier	1.25x to 2.00x

AI BYOK Formula

final_cost = request_fee + (total_tokens / 1,000,000) * token_gateway_fee_per_1m

Example:

request_fee = 0.0005
total_tokens = 10,000
token_gateway_fee_per_1m = 0.02

final_cost = 0.0005 + 10000 / 1000000 * 0.02
final_cost = 0.0007

Pre-Authorization and Settlement

AI and TRON calls can have uncertain final costs. Use this flow:

1. Calculate estimated_max_cost
2. Verify balance >= estimated_max_cost
3. Reserve or charge estimated_max_cost
4. Call upstream or wait for provider fulfillment
5. Calculate final_cost
6. Refund estimated_max_cost - final_cost
7. Write usage log and transaction records

Subscription Layers

Subscriptions should complement prepaid balance, not replace it.

Plan	Price	Intended user	Includes
Free	$0	Trial and hobby use	Small request quota, BYOK AI, basic services.
Developer	$19/month	Individual developers	Higher limits, streaming, basic logs.
Pro	$79/month	Small teams	Team features, budgets, longer logs.
Business	Custom	Commercial customers	SLA, audit, SSO, provider routing.

Transaction Types

Recommended ledger type names:

DEPOSIT_STRIPE
DEPOSIT_MANUAL
USAGE_BOT
USAGE_FILE
USAGE_WEBHOOK_PUSH
USAGE_TRON
USAGE_AI
REFUND_USAGE_AI
REFUND_USAGE_TRON
SUBSCRIPTION_FEE
CREDIT_GRANT