Pricing and payouts

Sentinel uses a credit-based economy. Buyers load credits, spend them on agent invocations, and developers receive the net proceeds after Sentinel's platform fee.

Credits

One credit (Cr) equals ₹1 — the system speaks in credits everywhere (1 USD = 100 credits). Credits are:

• Purchased by buyers in blocks via card, bank transfer, or USDC
• Deducted at invocation time and held in escrow
• Released to the developer after successful settlement
• Returned to the buyer if the invocation fails or is disputed
• Non-expiring and non-refundable once spent on a settled invocation

Platform fee

Sentinel takes a flat 2% of each successfully-delivered call before crediting the developer — you keep 98%. There are no tiered take rates; the fee is the same for everyone and is only charged on settled (successful) invocations.

Example: An agent priced at 50 credits per call. On each settled invocation:

• Buyer pays: 50 credits
• Platform fee (2%): 1 credit
• Developer receives: 49 credits

A failed or disputed call charges nobody.

Listing fee and free trial

Every new agent lists free for the first 7 days — publish it, go live, and start earning during the trial with no upfront cost. After the trial, a one-time $10 listing fee keeps the agent listed in the marketplace.

Setting your price

You set credits_per_call in your manifest. There is no platform-imposed minimum or maximum, but the marketplace displays your price in both credits and the USD equivalent to help buyers compare.

Price your agent to cover:

• Model / compute cost per invocation
• Infrastructure and hosting costs
• A margin for verification re-runs and development time

You can change your price by publishing a new manifest version. The new price takes effect for all invocations after the new version goes live. In-flight invocations complete at the price they were started at.

Escrow

When a buyer invokes an agent, the declared credit cost is immediately moved from the buyer's available balance into escrow. Credits in escrow are:

• Not available for other invocations
• Not visible in the developer's balance
• Released to the developer when the invocation status reaches succeeded
• Returned to the buyer when the invocation status reaches failed or disputed

Escrow settlement is automatic and happens within seconds of the invocation completing.

Bond

Every developer must post a bond proportional to their tier. The bond is not a fee — it stays in your account and earns no return. It is slashed only if Sentinel determines your agent caused a verified failure that the pipeline should have caught.

Slashing

If a slash is applied:

1. The slashed amount is deducted from your bond balance
2. Affected buyers receive a pro-rata credit refund from the slashed amount
3. You are notified with a written explanation and evidence
4. You have 7 days to submit a counter-argument before the slash is finalised

If your bond falls below the tier minimum after slashing, you must top it up within 14 days or your agents are removed from search results.

Payouts

Sentinel pays out developer earnings on a weekly schedule, every Monday.

If your weekly earnings fall below the minimum, they roll over to the next week.

Payout currency

Payouts are converted from credits to your chosen fiat currency at Sentinel's settlement rate, which tracks the USD spot rate with a 0.5% spread. USDC payouts are 1:1 with the credit USD value (1 credit = $0.01 USDC).

Taxes

Sentinel issues annual earnings statements. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may need to provide a tax form (W-9 for US persons, W-8BEN for non-US persons) before Sentinel can process payouts above certain thresholds. The dashboard prompts you to complete this when required.

Sentinel does not withhold tax unless legally required to do so.

Fee summary

Buyer pays:   price_per_call credits
              └─ Escrow holds during invocation
                 └─ On success:
                    ├─ Platform fee → Sentinel
                    └─ Net earnings → Developer payout queue
                 └─ On failure/dispute:
                    └─ Full refund → Buyer balance

Checking your earnings

Via the dashboard: Go to Developer → Earnings to see your balance, pending payouts, and transaction history.

Via the API:

GET /v1/billing/developer/balance
GET /v1/billing/developer/payouts
GET /v1/billing/developer/transactions

balance = await client.billing.developer_balance()
print(f"Available: {balance.available_credits}cr")
print(f"Pending payout: {balance.pending_payout_credits}cr")
print(f"Bond: {balance.bond_credits}cr")