your floor
guesswork
Guess at cost, discover months later you priced under compute.
a2a
Compute cost is derived from declared resources — your floor is explicit before launch.
a practical pricing guide
How to price an AI agent: cost floor first, markup on top.
Pricing an agent is two decisions in a trench coat: what the call costs to run, and what the answer is worth. a2a derives compute from declared resources and supports one native seller price, price_per_call_usd, as markup on top. Subscription, outcome, and hybrid strategies remain valid commercial options, but they require an external billing and entitlement layer today.
compute floor · markup · per-call · subscription · outcome
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number you set
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native seller pricing models
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calls billed under floor
the problem
The hard part isn't picking a number. It's knowing your floor.
Most agent pricing goes wrong at the arithmetic, not the strategy. Builders pick a round per-call price without knowing what a call actually costs to run, then discover at scale that popular calls lose money. Or they blend infra cost and margin into one opaque rate and can't tell whether they're profitable. Pricing well starts with a clean floor and a legible markup — then the choice of model is a conversation about value, not a guess in the dark.
A round price set without a compute floor quietly loses money on heavy calls.
Blending infra cost and margin into one rate hides whether you're profitable.
Charging a premium for outcomes you can't prove invites refunds and disputes.
Raising prices later risks corrupting the revenue history built on the old rate.
the a2a way
Compute floor, then markup, then the model that fits.
a2a derives the compute floor and lets you set native per-call markup. Use external billing for recurring plans or outcome settlement, and keep economic records distinct from signed execution receipts.
Start from your compute costSet markup as IP rentPer-call for bursty demandSubscription for standing useOutcome pricing when you can prove itChange price without rewriting history
Start from your compute cost
a2a derives the compute cost of a call from the resources your agent declares — CPU, memory, and GPU multiplied by runtime, over a small floor. That number is your floor price: charge below it and every call loses money. Knowing it before you set a price is half the pricing problem solved.
Set markup as IP rent
Your markup — declared as price_per_call_usd on the agent card — is what you charge on top of compute for the judgment, prompts, and tuning that make the agent worth calling. Compute is a pass-through; markup is your margin. Price the value of the answer, not the cost of the tokens.
Per-call for bursty demand
When calls are unpredictable and independent, set price_per_call_usd for authenticated Agent API access. Successful non-owner paid calls create native receipt-linked economics; direct gateway access needs separate buyer binding or external billing.
Subscription for standing use
When an agent is a fixed workflow dependency, a recurring fee can smooth spend and revenue. Today that plan, entitlement, allotment, renewal, and overage logic requires an external billing system; a2a does not expose native subscription pricing on the card.
Outcome pricing when you can prove it
Charging per resolved ticket or qualified lead can tie price to value, but outcome definition, verification, disputes, and settlement require an external system. Signed execution receipts can support review; they do not sign the economic amount or implement outcome billing.
Change price without rewriting history
Pricing is a moving target. When a verified receipt is ingested, its per-call economics are stored on the control-plane row, so later card-price changes do not rewrite that stored record. Those economics are ledger data, not signed receipt fields.
side-by-side
Guessing at a price vs. pricing on a2a.
the markup
guesswork
One flat number that mixes infra cost and margin into an opaque price.
a2a
Compute passes through; your declared markup is a separate, legible margin line.
choosing a model
guesswork
Pick per-call or subscription up front and re-platform to switch later.
a2a
Per-call is native; subscription, outcome, and hybrid require external billing integrations.
defending the price
guesswork
"Trust us, it did the work" — hard to charge a premium on.
a2a
Signed execution evidence can support review; an external system still defines and settles outcome charges.
raising prices
guesswork
A price change risks corrupting reports built on the old rate.
a2a
Earnings snapshot at run time, so past calls keep their price when you raise the new one.
dimension
guesswork
a2a
your floor
Guess at cost, discover months later you priced under compute.
Compute cost is derived from declared resources — your floor is explicit before launch.
the markup
One flat number that mixes infra cost and margin into an opaque price.
Compute passes through; your declared markup is a separate, legible margin line.
choosing a model
Pick per-call or subscription up front and re-platform to switch later.
Per-call is native; subscription, outcome, and hybrid require external billing integrations.
defending the price
"Trust us, it did the work" — hard to charge a premium on.
Signed execution evidence can support review; an external system still defines and settles outcome charges.
raising prices
A price change risks corrupting reports built on the old rate.
Earnings snapshot at run time, so past calls keep their price when you raise the new one.
questions
Frequently asked.
How do I decide what to charge for an AI agent?
Start from the compute floor — a2a derives it from the CPU, memory, and GPU your agent declares times its runtime — and never price below it. Then add markup for the value your agent delivers: the prompting, tooling, and domain judgment a buyer can't easily reproduce. The buyer's gross per call is compute plus your markup, so you set exactly one number, price_per_call_usd, and the platform assembles the rest.
Should I price per call, per subscription, or per outcome?
Match the strategy to consumption. Native per-call pricing fits bursty, independent requests. Subscription can fit a standing dependency, but needs an external recurring-billing and entitlement layer. Outcome-based pricing needs external outcome verification and settlement. Hybrid combines those external components with native per-call usage where useful.
How does markup relate to compute cost?
They're separate lines that add up to the buyer's price. Compute is the platform's infrastructure pass-through, derived from the resources your agent declares. Markup is your margin — the IP rent you charge on top. Gross per call equals compute plus markup. Keeping them distinct means you can reason about margin directly instead of backing it out of a single blended rate.
What happens to past earnings when I change my price?
When a verified receipt is ingested, the control plane stores the calculated per-call price and split on that row. Later price_per_call_usd changes do not rewrite the stored row. The execution receipt remains independently signed, while the historical economics are separate database fields linked by receipt ID.
Can I test a price and adjust it later?
Yes. Iterate on native price_per_call_usd as you learn demand. If you later introduce a subscription, outcome rate, or hybrid, plan for an external billing, entitlement, and settlement integration; those are not native agent-card pricing modes today.
keep reading
Related guides.
All guides live in the guides index.
agents that ship, earn, and prove
Set the price. Keep the proof.
a2a cloud deploys any agent as a live service with managed Postgres, MCP, and an API. Declare resources and price_per_call_usd for authenticated Agent API paid calls, which receive signed receipts plus separate economics. Direct public `/invoke` and standard MCP receipts record zero platform economics.