# Who you pay, and for what

You pay each publisher directly. Linkio charges a fee per job, from prepaid money, a card or your own provider keys.

## Two kinds of payment

| What | Who is paid | How |
|---|---|---|
| The placement (guest post or link insertion) | The publisher who sells the site | You pay the publisher's invoice directly, at the price you saw when you ordered. Linkio does not take or move this money. |
| Linkio's work (searches past the free sites, articles, checks, write calls) | Linkio | Charged per job from money on the account or your card. |

On a search result the price you pay the publisher is `guestPostCost`, in dollars. On an order item it is
`wholesalePrice`, in cents. That is the one price per site.

## Linkio's fees

Every paid job says what it will hold before it runs. An agent reads that with `usage_estimate`. A job the
account cannot fund is refused with a `402` that names the way out. Reads of your own data are free. Each call
of a key that writes costs a write fee.

Three things fund Linkio's work:

- **Your own provider keys** (https://www.linkio.com/account/ai-keys). The provider bills you at cost. Linkio
  charges only its fee. On Linkio's keys a job pays the provider cost plus Linkio's margin.
- **Money on the account** (https://www.linkio.com/shop).
- **A card** (https://www.linkio.com/billing). Usage goes onto the card and is charged automatically: $5 the
  first time, then every $50, and on the 1st of each month.

A new account with its OpenAI and DataForSEO keys live and a verified email gets a $10 free start for 90 days.
Each fee, and how the card and the free start work in detail: [Billing, limits and receipts](/docs/api/billing).

## Spending limits

Set them on https://www.linkio.com/billing#limits. An agent reads them with `usage_limits_get`.

- **A monthly budget.** Paid work stops when the month's budget is used.
- **"Ask me before any job over $X".** A job above that amount waits for your yes. You decide on
  https://www.linkio.com/account/activity?view=waiting.

## What a month cost

- Linkio's charges: `usage_jobs` lists each charge of a month (feature, provider cost, Linkio's fee, amount).
  The billing page shows the same.
- Publisher payments: `account_publisher_invoices_list` lists each publisher invoice, pending and paid. In the
  app they are on https://www.linkio.com/account/publisher-payments.

Linkio does not add the two together. Add them to get the month's total.