Documentation
Cost Structure Basics
An introduction to how costs are calculated from usage metrics.
Back to Cost Structure Overview
Costs are Usage Based with a Free Usage Level
The cost of using this system is based on usage, and does not use a subscription model. If you stop using the system, your usage is zero, and you incur no cost.
There is a free level of usage available. If you have only one Market, you have unlimited use of that Market, indefinitely, without cost. This is provided to allow businesses to run Proof-of-Concept projects in production, without having to commit finances before the utility of price negotiation has been proved.
How Usage is Measured and Costed
With only one Market, there is no usage cost, and you have unlimited use of that Market. Beyond your first free Market, there are costs proportional to the number of additional Markets created, the number of Orders placed, and the number of Fills created.
Markets are charged for as they are the engine of the system. To run each Market, there is a compute cost and a storage cost. If a Market does not process Orders in a UTC calendar day, it does not incur a cost. Putting a Market into CLOSE state ensures that it will not incur a cost until it is opened again.
Fills are the end product of this system, the agreements between trading counterparties. The more Fills the system creates, the more successful price negotiation is taking place, and that should lead to direct and tangible business gains for Users.
Orders are required to generate Fills, and the handling and tracking of Orders has a compute and storage burden on this system. Restricting order flow would be counter-productive, so Orders are charged for at a rate that is approximately an order of magnitude less than the rate for Fills.
Cost Structure Calculation
The concept of a Market-Day is a way to charge for Market usage at a practical resolution level. If a Market processes an Order while OPEN during a UTC calendar day, it is potentially charged for that Market-Day. If the Market processes no Orders during that day, it does not incur a Market-Day cost. Putting a Market into CLOSE state ensures that it cannot process Orders and therefore cannot incur a Market-Day cost until it is opened again.