How reserve, release, and charge work

Applies to: Developer · Team · Enterprise — Last reviewed 2026-06-29

Every request is settled as a chain of ledger entries. The wallet has an available balance and a reserved (frozen) balance.

The flow

  1. reserve — before execution, the platform freezes the maximum the request could cost.
  2. execute — the provider runs the request.
  3. finalize — the real token cost is charged; the unused hold is released.
recharge  +$10.000000   balance $10.000000
reserve   −$0.000900    balance  $9.999100   (frozen)
release   +$0.000900    balance $10.000000
charge    −$0.0000071   balance  $9.9999929

What each entry means

  • provider_cost — what the platform pays the upstream provider.
  • platform_fee — the GotoAI margin.
  • user_charge — provider cost + platform fee (+ builder fee, if attributed).

Reconciliation

The ledger is append-only. An automated check verifies the invariant available balance == sum(ledger amounts) and alerts on any drift. You can run it yourself from the Console's Billing page.

When Enterprise BYOK is enabled, the provider cost is borne by you directly, so GotoAI charges only the gateway fee — the ledger still reconciles.

Next steps