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Pricing, Billing, And Gas Credits

PayChain pricing has two parts: your plan and your usage. Your plan sets your monthly subscription, invoice fee rate, minimum fee, payout API withdrawal quota, and included sponsored gas allowance. Usage increases when you process invoices, create payout withdrawals, or consume sponsored gas on supported networks.
Important note: Sponsored gas makes supported outbound operations easier, but it does not mean unlimited network usage. PayChain still tracks sponsored gas per business.

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Plan comparison

PlanMonthlyInvoice feeMinimum feeSponsored gasIncluded payout API withdrawals
Free$00.95%$0.10Fair-use included0 / month
Startup$190.70%$0.10$10 / month included100 / month
Growth$990.55%$0.05$35 / month included1,000 / month
Scale$4990.35%$0.05$150 / month included10,000 / month
EnterpriseCustom0.15%-0.35%CustomCustomCustom
Enterprise is a commercial plan, not a zero-dollar plan. Use Enterprise when the business needs custom pricing, custom payout volume, rollout support, security review, dedicated support, or negotiated gas and settlement terms.
Operator note: Free and paid plans can still receive payments. Gas-credit exhaustion affects eligible sponsored outbound actions, such as sweeps or sponsored withdrawals.
Payout API note: Free includes 0 / month payout API withdrawals as included quota. This does not block payout API withdrawals; it means the Free payout API fee applies from the first programmatic withdrawal. Startup and higher plans use included payout API quota first, then plan-specific overage pricing where applicable.

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Fee types

  • Monthly subscription: recurring plan cost.
  • Invoice fee: percentage fee on settled invoice volume.
  • Minimum fee: smallest fee PayChain charges on an invoice to keep small payments economically safe.
  • Payout API withdrawal quota: included API-triggered withdrawals per billing cycle.
  • Standalone withdrawal fee: product fee for withdrawals outside standard payment processing.
  • Sponsored gas: network cost PayChain sponsors for eligible outbound operations.
Dashboard/manual withdrawals and payout API withdrawals are separate commercial surfaces. A Free plan business can use payment collection, dashboard/manual withdrawal flows, contract-interaction withdrawals where available, and payout API withdrawals. Free just starts at paid payout API usage because it has no included payout API quota.

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Withdrawal fee behavior

PlanPayout API fee after included quotaStandalone/dashboard withdrawal fee
Free$0.05$0.08
Startup$0.03$0.05
Growth$0.01$0.03
Scale$0.005$0.02
EnterpriseCustomCustom
Payout API fees apply to backend-created programmatic withdrawals, dynamic-recipient payout legs, and invoice-linked payout automation after included quota is used. On Free, included quota is zero, so the payout API fee applies immediately.

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Invoice fee examples

These examples show the plan fee only. Network behavior and gas-credit usage depend on the rail and operation.
PlanInvoice amountFee rulePayChain feeMerchant net
Free$10.000.95%, $0.10 minimum$0.10$9.90
Startup$10.000.70%, $0.10 minimum$0.10$9.90
Startup$100.000.70%, $0.10 minimum$0.70$99.30
Growth$100.000.55%, $0.05 minimum$0.55$99.45
Scale$1,000.000.35%, $0.05 minimum$3.50$996.50
Minimum-fee note: For very small explicit invoices, the dashboard may warn that the amount is below the recommended minimum for the plan. Explicit invoices can still be created when expected merchant net remains positive.
Sponsored gas keeps outbound payment operations moving without requiring each merchant to hold native network tokens. PayChain may use shared sponsored-gas infrastructure, but usage is attributed per business before operations are submitted.

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Included gas vs prepaid gas

Credit typeHow it works
Included gas creditsGranted by plan each billing cycle. Used first. Resets each cycle.
Prepaid gas creditsBought as top-ups. Used after included gas. Does not expire by default.
Consumption order:
  1. Included monthly sponsored gas.
  2. Prepaid gas balance.
  3. Eligible sponsored outbound operations pause as gas_blocked.

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What uses gas credits

  • Automatic sweeps.
  • Sponsored withdrawals.
  • Payout API withdrawals.
  • ATA creation on Solana.
  • Token account closing or rent reclaim.
  • Contract execution when PayChain sponsors network cost.
The standalone withdrawal fee is a product fee. Gas credits reduce only when PayChain incurs sponsored network cost.
Billing note: A withdrawal fee and sponsored gas consumption are separate things. A withdrawal can have a product fee, and gas credits only reduce when PayChain sponsors network cost.
PayChain records sponsored gas usage on eligible outbound operations even when the API caller does not provide a gas estimate. This keeps dashboard gas usage aligned with actual sponsored execution instead of relying on integrators to supply gas-cost fields.

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Gas-credit examples

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Included gas first

A Startup business receives $10 included sponsored gas for the billing cycle.
  1. The business has 10includedgasand10 included gas and 0 prepaid gas.
  2. A sponsored outbound operation costs $0.15.
  3. PayChain records $0.15 of gas usage.
  4. Included gas becomes $9.85.
  5. Prepaid gas remains $0.

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Prepaid gas after included gas

  1. The business has 0.20includedgasand0.20 included gas and 5 prepaid gas.
  2. A sponsored withdrawal costs $0.35.
  3. PayChain uses $0.20 included gas first.
  4. PayChain uses $0.15 prepaid gas for the remainder.
  5. Included gas becomes 0andprepaidgasbecomes0 and prepaid gas becomes 4.85.

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Gas-blocked operation

  1. The business has 0includedgasand0 included gas and 0.02 prepaid gas.
  2. A sponsored payout route leg is estimated to need $0.10.
  3. PayChain keeps inbound invoice confirmation active.
  4. The outbound payout operation is marked gas_blocked.
  5. The operator buys a top-up pack.
  6. PayChain resumes queued gas-blocked work oldest-first until credit is insufficient again.
Top-up note: Gas top-ups do not require a plan upgrade. They restore sponsored outbound continuity for the current plan.

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What does not stop when gas credits run out

  • Inbound payment detection.
  • Invoice payment confirmation.
  • Webhook delivery.
  • Dashboard access.
  • Billing invoice payment.
  • Gas top-ups.
Gas exhaustion affects eligible sponsored outbound work, not payment collection.

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Top-ups

Users can buy 5,5, 10, 25,25, 50, or $100 gas packs without upgrading plan. After a successful top-up, PayChain resumes gas-blocked operations for that business oldest-first until credit is insufficient again.

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Billing and usage APIs

Use these endpoints if your own dashboard needs to show plan, fee, quota, gas, or top-up state. 
curl "$PAYCHAIN_API_URL/billing/me" \
  -H "x-api-key: $PAYCHAIN_API_KEY"

curl "$PAYCHAIN_API_URL/billing/usage" \
  -H "x-api-key: $PAYCHAIN_API_KEY"
Expected billing surfaces include:
  • Current plan.
  • Invoice fee rate and minimum fee.
  • Payout API withdrawal quota and usage.
  • Included gas granted, used, and remaining.
  • Prepaid gas balance.
  • Gas top-up options.
  • Gas-blocked operation count.

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Billing lifecycle

  1. Paid plans create a renewal invoice 5 days before cycle end.
  2. If the invoice is paid, the next cycle activates and included gas is granted.
  3. If unpaid at cycle end, the business enters a 14-day grace / past-due warning period.
  4. During grace, product access remains unchanged and users see soft warnings.
  5. If still unpaid after grace, the business downgrades to Free. Data is preserved.

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Where users see usage

  • Dashboard billing page.
  • Gas balance and top-up cards.
  • Payout quota usage.
  • Blocked settlement state.
  • GET /api/v1/billing/me.
  • GET /api/v1/billing/usage.