Standard ComputeFor AI agencies
How should an AI agency pay for its clients’ agent usage?
Give each client its own workspace and each agent its own key on a monthly plan from $19. The key stops at its budget, and you get an invoice for it every month under that client.
example agency3 clients · 4 agent keys
| agent key | plan | budget used |
|---|---|---|
| Halden Legal agency pays · Europe | ||
| intake-agent | Standard | 64% |
| contract-review | Pro | 41% |
| Brightwater Shop client pays · Anywhere | ||
| support-bot | Economy | 82% |
| Ostra Clinic agency pays · Europe | ||
| triage-agent | Pay as you go | 22% |
01 · Billing models
Three ways to charge clients for AI usage.
| How you charge | What the client is charged | Who pays, in Client settings | Your exposure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass-through at cost | Standard Compute’s plan price, paid directly | The client pays | None. The client’s card pays for each plan. |
| Bundled retainer | One fixed monthly fee that includes AI usage | My agency pays, with a plan per agent key | Capped. Each key stops at its budget. |
| Markup | Your price for the agent, on your invoice | My agency pays, on a plan or pay as you go | Known before you quote: a plan price or a monthly limit. |
When the client pays, the plans you pick go to the client’s admins to approve and pay. Nothing is charged until they do.
02 · Setup
A new client in four steps.
- Create your agencyIn the sidebar under Business, choose Create an agency.
- Add a clientOpen the workspace switcher and choose + Add client.
- Add an agent keyOn the client’s Home, choose + Add an application key, then pick a plan or pay as you go.
- Choose who paysIn Client settings, pick My agency pays or The client pays.
AgencyFjordline Studio
Clients
Halden Legal
Brightwater Shop
Ostra Clinic
+ Add client
03 · Budgets
Every agent key has a ceiling.
- A plan per agent key
At its monthly budget, the key stops until renewal or an upgrade. No overage charges.
- Or pay as you go
A prepaid balance per client at usage + 15%, with optional automatic refill and a monthly limit per key or for the whole client.
plans per agent keymonthly
| plan | price | compute budget |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19 | $20 |
| Economy | $39 | $41 |
| Standard | $89 | $95 |
| Pro | $249 | $269 |
| Pro Plus | $499 | $549 |
| Growth | $999 | $1,119 |
| Scale | $2,499 | $2,849 |
Budget is the usage a key can spend each month. You pay the price.
04 · EU clients
Keep a client’s inference in Europe.
Set the client’s Compliance to Europe and its requests, fallbacks included, only go to model providers’ European endpoints. Fewer models are available there. More on our data privacy page.
compliancecontract-review
Anywhere
Europe
United States
Limited by Halden Legal: Europe only. You can narrow it here, not widen it.
05 · Access
What your client can see.
| Area | You, the agency | People you invite from the client |
|---|---|---|
| Workspaces | Your agency and every client, in the switcher | Only their own workspace |
| Agent keys | All of them, with this month’s spend against budget | Members: the keys they can use. Admins: all of the client’s keys |
| Billing | Plans and invoices for each client | Admins: Billing and invoices, where they approve plans if the client pays |
| People | Everyone in each client workspace | Their colleagues, plus the people from your agency who have access |
| History | Audit log: who changed what, and when | Members: their own activity |
06 · Trade-offs
What to know before you quote.
- Budgets don’t pool across plan keys. To share one pot, put a client’s keys on pay as you go with a limit for the whole client.
- Each plan key is billed as its own subscription, so it gets its own monthly invoice.
- We don’t invoice your client for you. With markup, the invoice to your client is yours to send.
- There is no combined report across clients yet. Spend is on each client’s Home.
FAQ
Before you set up a client.
How are clients invoiced?
Every client workspace is its own Stripe customer, and each agent key on a plan is its own monthly subscription. So a client with three plan keys gets three invoices a month, all listed under that client’s Billing tab, with billing address and VAT or tax ID collected at checkout. The workspace owner gets an email with each paid invoice.
What happens when an agent key uses up its budget?
Requests on that key stop until the billing period renews or you move the key to a bigger plan. There are no overage charges. Keys on pay as you go stop when the prepaid balance or their monthly limit runs out. The check runs before each request, so one already running can finish slightly past the limit.
What is the compute budget, and why is it higher than the price?
It is the model usage a key can spend in a month, measured at the rates we route at. Every plan includes a little more budget than its price as bonus compute. You pay the plan price; usage beyond the budget is refused, not billed.
Can we keep an EU client’s inference in Europe?
Yes. Set the client workspace’s Compliance to Europe. Requests, including fallbacks, then only go to model providers’ European endpoints, and keys inside the client can narrow that rule but not widen it. It controls where providers run inference; it is not an end-to-end data-residency guarantee, and fewer models are available in Europe.
Which agents can an agent key run?
Anything that speaks the OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API at https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1. There are setup guides for Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode, OpenClaw and Hermes Agent. Test the client’s real workflow on one key before you size up.
Can we try it on a real client project first?
Creating the agency and client workspaces is free, and you only pay for keys you put on a plan. To run a pilot before paying, contact us: we can sponsor the first month of one plan, no card needed.
Running one team rather than clients? See the LLM API for teams.