# Metering billing and settlement

Availability: **Proposed specification**  
Documentation: **1.1** | Updated: **19 September 2026**

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The billing model separates resource consumption, acceptance, payment confirmation and network incentives. This specification does not introduce or modify Ocean6 token supply, staking, reward or release parameters.

## Quote and budget

BILL-01 A quote MUST fix the asset or currency, unit, rate, validity period, budget limit, treatment of failures and cancellations, and dispute terms before execution is accepted. GPU time, model tokens and completed service calls are distinct units and cannot be combined without an explicit conversion.

The coordinator must reserve or otherwise control budget before authorizing work. Budget exhaustion rejects new allocation or stops further workflow steps according to the accepted policy. It does not create an unlimited credit facility.

## Usage records

A UsageRecord identifies task, attempt, meter, measurement version, interval, unit, quantity and deduplication key. Executor-reported usage is a claim until evaluated. External-model usage should reconcile to provider request records. GPU measurement must state its observation method and treatment of shared resources; online wall-clock time alone is not effective compute.

| Condition | Accounting behavior |
| --- | --- |
| Delivery passes acceptance | Apply the frozen quote to confirmed billable usage. |
| Failure or cancellation | Apply the agreed policy and retain reason and usage separately. |
| Automatic retry | Preserve attempt costs and avoid duplicate logical-task charges. |
| Repeated payment notice | Apply one ledger effect for the same external payment identifier. |
| Dispute or refund | Append a case and adjustment; preserve the original record. |

## Payment finality

BILL-02 Use fixed decimal precision or integer minor units with explicit rounding rules. Do not accumulate monetary balances in unconstrained binary floating point.

For a future onchain payment path, publish chain, contract, asset, upgrade authority and confirmation policy. Broadcast, inclusion and finality are separate states; reorganization and failed transactions require reconciliation. The local reference always writes settlement as null and makes no payment.

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