> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.chaser.sh/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.chaser.sh/_mcp/server.

# Billing & Usage

How Chaser charges, how to check your balance, and how to add funds.

## Pricing

**$5 per gigabyte of egress.**

- 1 GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
- Egress = bytes_up + bytes_down (all TCP bytes through the session's proxy)
- Residential proxy is included — no separate proxy fee
- No per-session charge, no idle charge, no minimum

## Free credit

Every workspace starts with 100 MB of free credit. It never expires. You can use it to test the full API before adding funds.

## Checking usage

```bash
curl -s https://api.chaser.sh/v1/usage \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHASER_KEY" | jq '.totals'
```

Response:

```json
{
  "bytes_up": 22152347,
  "bytes_down": 324499563,
  "bytes_total": 346651910,
  "sessions": 54,
  "billed_micro_usd": 1733259
}
```

`billed_micro_usd` is the total charge in micro-dollars. Divide by 1,000,000 for dollars: $1.73.

## Adding funds

Top up through the dashboard's billing page, or via the API:

```bash
curl -s https://api.chaser.sh/v1/billing/topup \
  -X POST \
  -H "Cookie: chaser_session=..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"amount_usd": 50}'
```

This returns a Stripe checkout URL. Complete payment there. Funds are credited to the workspace balance immediately after Stripe confirms payment.

- **Minimum top-up:** $10
- **Credits never expire**
- **No auto-top-up** — you control when and how much to add

## Insufficient balance

If the workspace balance reaches zero:

- Active sessions continue until they expire or are deleted
- New session creation returns `402 payment_required`
- Top up to resume

## Cost estimation

| Scenario | Egress | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 page scrapes (avg 200 KB/page) | ~200 MB | $1.00 |
| 10,000 page scrapes | ~2 GB | $10.00 |
| 1 hour of continuous browsing | ~500 MB | $2.50 |

Actual egress depends on page weight, images, scripts, and API calls the page makes. The numbers above are typical for text-heavy pages with moderate assets.

## Invoicing

Chaser is prepaid — you add funds, then spend them. There are no post-paid invoices. Stripe sends a receipt for each top-up.