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api Autonomous API Consumption

Your agent consumes APIs. Oris handles the bill.

Autonomous agents call external APIs thousands of times per day. Each call costs a fraction of a cent. Traditional payment infrastructure cannot process this volume at this price point. Oris micropayment channels batch thousands of sub-cent payments into periodic on-chain settlements. Your agent pays per call. The provider receives payment per call. The on-chain cost stays minimal.

API Cost Tracker
OpenAI GPT-4$12.40
Anthropic Claude$8.20
AWS Lambda$3.15
Daily budget remaining $76.25 / $100
$0.001
Minimum Payment
Pre-Paid
Budget Channels
Auto-Refill
Channel Balance
Real-Time
Usage Analytics
The Problem
01

The API Consumption Problem

An AI research agent calls a market data API 50,000 times per day at $0.002 per call. That is $100 per day in API costs spread across 50,000 individual transactions. Processing each call as a separate on-chain payment would cost more in gas than the API call itself. Credit card processors do not support sub-cent transactions. Traditional invoicing creates reconciliation overhead. The agent needs a payment method that matches the granularity of its consumption.

Cost Breakdown (50K calls/day)
API calls per day50,000
Cost per call$0.002
Gas per on-chain tx$0.001
Total gas without Oris$50.00/day
Gas overhead50% of API cost
Solution
02

How Oris Solves API Billing

01

Open a Channel

The developer configures a micropayment channel between the agent and the API provider. The channel allocates a budget from the agent's wallet. One on-chain transaction opens the channel.

02

Pay Per Call

Each API call triggers a micropayment through the channel. The payment updates the channel balance in memory. No on-chain transaction occurs per call. The agent pays. The provider tracks the balance.

03

Settle Periodically

The channel settles periodically (hourly, daily, or when the budget is exhausted). A single on-chain transaction captures all accumulated micropayments. The API provider receives the total amount minus settlement gas costs.

Patterns
03
touch_app

Pay-Per-Call

Fixed price per API call. The agent pays $0.003 per request. Oris tracks the running total and settles on schedule. The simplest model for predictable pricing.

Example
10,000 calls x $0.003 = $30.00
Settlement: 1 on-chain tx
speed

Metered Usage

Variable pricing based on response size, compute time, or data volume. The provider reports usage. Oris calculates the cost and deducts from the channel automatically.

Example
$0.001/KB response size
Variable cost per call

Supported Payment Patterns

Oris supports three pricing models that cover the full spectrum of API billing requirements. Each model works within the micropayment channel infrastructure to minimize on-chain settlement costs.

data_usage

Subscription with Overage

Base monthly allocation with per-call pricing above the limit. Oris manages the allocation tracking and overage billing automatically. No manual reconciliation required.

Example
$50/mo for 25K calls
$0.003/call overage
Integration
04

Micropayments in Code

Open a channel with a single SDK call. Each subsequent API request automatically deducts from the channel balance. Monitor consumption in real time through the channel object. Settlement happens on the schedule you define.

api_consumption.py
# Configure API consumption for an agent
channel = oris.micropayments.open(
    agent_id="agent_researcher",
    provider="0x7f3a...9c2d",  # API provider wallet
    budget=100.00,              # $100 daily budget
    settlement="hourly",
    chain="base"
)

# Agent calls the API (payment happens automatically)
response = agent.call_api(
    url="https://api.datavendor.com/market-data",
    payment_channel=channel.id
)
# Oris deducts $0.002 from the channel

# Check consumption
print(channel.spent)       # $47.30
print(channel.remaining)   # $52.70
print(channel.call_count)  # 23,650
Economics
05

The Cost Difference

50,000 API calls per day at $0.002 per call on Base L2.

close

Without Oris

On-chain transactions50,000
Gas per transaction~$0.001
Total gas cost$50.00
API costs$100.00
Daily Total$150.00
check_circle

With Oris

On-chain transactions1
Gas per settlement~$0.001
Total gas cost$0.001
API costs$100.00
Daily Total$100.001
savings 33% cost reduction. $49.999 saved per day. $18,250 saved per year.
Get Started

Open your first micropayment channel

Configure a channel, connect your agent, and start paying for API calls at sub-cent granularity. Settlement happens automatically.