> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vetta.sh/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits & billing

> A real US-dollar balance, topped up through the payments provider, metered against vendor cost.

Vetta billing is **real US dollars** — no abstract point currency. Your organization holds a balance; every action draws from it at metered cost.

## The balance

Your [organization](/docs/platform/organizations) has one balance, denominated in US dollars. Every agent it owns draws from the same balance.

```bash CLI theme={"system"}
vetta credits show
vetta credits ledger --limit 50     # every grant and charge
```

## Topping up

Add funds through a hosted checkout session with the payments provider. You can also set up a subscription that grants a monthly dollar allowance.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash CLI theme={"system"}
  vetta credits topup --usd 50        # returns a checkout link
  vetta credits show                  # current balance
  vetta credits ledger --limit 20     # what the balance was spent on
  ```

  ```typescript TypeScript theme={"system"}
  const checkout = await vetta.credits.topup({ usd: 50 });
  console.log(checkout.url);
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## How usage is metered

Costs are measured against **vendor invoices**, not list price, and drawn from the balance in real dollars. What you see quoted is what you are charged — see the [rate card](/docs/platform/pricing).

* **[Model calls](/docs/concepts/model-router)** — per token across five tiers, at the [completion window](/docs/concepts/completion-window) tariff.
* **[Computer](/docs/computer/limits-and-billing)** — per second while running; paused meters storage only; no creation fee.
* **[Priced tools](/docs/platform/pricing#priced-tools)** — [`web_search`/`web_fetch`](/docs/capabilities/tools#web-tools) per call, [`generate_image`/`generate_video`](/docs/capabilities/tools#generation-tools) per finished job.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/vetta/rjfQyQrWaQ5bFTTq/images/quote-before-spend.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=rjfQyQrWaQ5bFTTq&q=85&s=3d84f1c0ee3fd78de9de066afa0be56b" alt="Quote before spend: every call is priced, checked against the budget cap and org balance, then either runs with an idempotent ledger entry or is refused with budget_paused and nothing spent" width="900" height="340" data-path="images/quote-before-spend.svg" />

Every charge is:

1. **Quoted before the call** and checked against your [budget](/docs/concepts/budgets) and balance.
2. **Recorded as an idempotent ledger entry** — the balance can never be double-charged for the same call.
3. **Floored at zero** — the wallet never goes negative; a small post-hoc overshoot is forgiven rather than clawed back.

## Reading spend

```bash CLI theme={"system"}
vetta agent spend nightly-triage --by component   # model vs computer vs search vs media
vetta session get $SID                  # cost consumed by one run
```

Every ledger debit records the [5-tier token line items](/docs/concepts/model-router), the `session_id`, and the acting `actor`, so spend is attributable end to end.

<Note>
  Vetta meters against measured vendor cost because list-price rate cards over-state real cost by 1.017x–4.176x depending on harness and window — see [Benchmarks](https://usenaive.ai/benchmarks).
</Note>

## Attribution & live usage

* **Who spent it** — every action and money movement is principal-attributed; see the [audit log](/docs/api/audit-logs).
* **Live cost per run** — a session exposes `consumed_micro_usd` and 5-tier `token_usage`, and emits `session.usage` before idle. See [Observability](/docs/capabilities/observability).

## On the wire

Money is integer **micro-USD** (`_micro_usd`, `1 USD = 1_000_000`) everywhere on the wire — every ledger entry, session `consumed_micro_usd`, and quote. The CLI renders dollars for humans.

<Card title="Next: pricing & the completion window" icon="tags" href="/docs/platform/pricing">
  How the window changes what you pay.
</Card>