# MissingManual pricing

You pay what the research cost to run, rounded up to the next cent, plus a
flat $2.00. Nothing else. A guide that fails costs nothing.

## The rule

- Your agent authorizes a maximum before any research starts. Nothing runs
  until that hold is recorded.
- A successful guide charges the measured provider cost, rounded up to the
  next USD cent, plus exactly $2.00.
- A failed or cancelled guide charges $0, and the authorization is released
  or refunded in full.
- The charge never exceeds the maximum your agent approved. If the true cost
  lands above it, we absorb the difference and do not ask for a second
  payment.

## Worked example

These numbers illustrate the arithmetic. They are not a quoted price; what a
guide costs depends on how much research the subject takes.

| Line | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Measured provider cost | $1.8342 |
| Rounded up to the next cent | $1.84 |
| Service fee | $2.00 |
| Total charged | $3.84 |

Providers meter below the cent. Card networks do not. The fraction of a cent
created by that rounding is printed on the receipt rather than kept quietly.

## Receipt

A completed `get_guide` returns the markdown and a receipt carrying each of
these:

| Field | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| `providerCostUsdMicros` | Measured provider spend for the run, in USD micros. |
| `serviceFeeUsdMicros` | Always 2,000,000 — exactly $2.00. |
| `roundingUsdMicros` | The sub-cent remainder created by rounding up. |
| `merchantLossUsdMicros` | Present when the authorized maximum capped the charge. |
| `totalChargedUsdMicros` | What was actually captured. |
| `pricingVersion` | The cost model the run was priced under. |

## Units

Provider cost is metered in USD micros — millionths of a dollar. Charges
settle in USD, in whole cents, through Stripe. `maxTotalChargeUsdMicros` is
therefore a whole number of cents expressed in micros: a positive multiple of
10,000.

## What there is not

There is no subscription, no seat, no minimum commitment, no prepaid credit,
and no leftover balance to spend down. There is one hold per job, and it
settles or it releases. Status reads are free.