Credits, reservations, and receipts

AntAPI prices published API capabilities in Credits. Read the current pricing and unit for the specific operation before calling it; different capabilities can have different prices. A request's price version and quantity contract are frozen when the operation is first created. Retrying the same operation does not switch it to a newer price.

Three billing rules

Rule	What creates a charge
free	No reservation, Debit, or charge receipt.
per_request	One successful synchronous request is one unit.
per_item	Verified successful discrete items determine the final quantity.

For synchronous per_request billing, a successful upstream HTTP response supplies one request unit. per_item uses the product's declared success definition; a successful HTTP response alone does not establish that every item is billable. Asynchronous HTTP 202 means accepted, with funds reserved, and does not trigger a final Debit.

Free endpoints still require a valid key, permission, and compliance with rate limits. They do not require a positive Credits balance.

Reservation before execution

For a paid operation, the Gateway reserves its maximum authorized cost before allowing execution. This Hold reduces available Credits while the work is outstanding. The project UTC monthly budget is reserved in the same transaction.

An operation can be rejected if its maximum cost cannot be covered by eligible Credits or its project budget. Credits must also be valid for the operation's reservation period; a visible balance is not necessarily fully eligible for a long-running task.

Once the platform verifies the final outcome, it charges successful units and releases the rest of the reservation. If no items succeeded, it releases the reservation without creating a charge receipt. A batch crossing a UTC month boundary settles against its original month's budget reservation.

Product success definitions

Each product defines its successful units. Read its integration guide and API reference before assuming that a successful HTTP response, a result row, or a cache hit establishes a billable item. For example, the WHOIS data quality guide explains conclusive outcomes and duplicate domains.

Check the final record

Use Console to review usage, Credits, and receipts. A reservation is not a final charge, and a batch's execution status can become terminal before its platform settlement is reflected.

Where the Gateway returns a final paid settlement, these headers identify it:

Header	Meaning
X-Request-ID	Request identifier for investigation.
X-AntAPI-Receipt-ID	Authoritative charge receipt identifier.
X-AntAPI-Credits-Debit-Atoms	Credits atoms debited for the operation.

Do not calculate the charge from a product result body's fields or from the number of result rows. Use the platform's recorded settlement. A timeout or client disconnect does not cancel authorized work; the platform recovers its original execution state. If a trustworthy final outcome remains unavailable at the safety deadline, the platform releases the remaining reservation and closes settlement without later charging it.