Metered AI event definition

Definition

A metered AI event is one unique provider-bound, meter-only, or policy-evaluated AI request event recorded by P402 for a customer tenant during the billing period.

What counts as a metered AI event

The following are billable when recorded:

1. Hosted AI request through P402. A request that traverses the P402 router and is forwarded to a provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Cohere, OpenRouter, etc.).
2. Meter-only event submitted by SDK or API. A request the customer makes directly to a provider where the SDK or API posts the event metadata to P402 for ledger purposes.
3. Policy-evaluated AI event. A request whose policy was evaluated by P402's Control surface, including shadow-mode decisions, whether or not the request was forwarded.
4. Settled AI work event. A request that is settled via P402's facilitator for an AI service the customer purchased through P402.
5. Retry event when unique and customer-caused. A retry triggered by the customer's application where the retry has a distinct event id.

What does not count

The following are explicitly excluded:

• Dashboard views. Looking at your usage does not cost.
• Outcome-only records. Posting outcomes never counts as an event.
• Duplicate replay with the same event id. Idempotent replay is free.
• Internal heartbeat. Health-check pings from P402 to providers are not customer-attributable.
• Support action. A P402 staff member querying customer data for support is not a billable event.
• Billing sync. Billing-system sync activity is not metered.
• Admin audit action. A customer admin reading the audit log is not a billable event.
• Failed auth request before tenant resolution. If we can't identify the tenant, we cannot bill the tenant.
• Test fixture events. Events written from a tenant flagged as a test tenant are excluded by query.
• Synthetic QA events. Events written by the P402 QA harness against an enrolled tenant are excluded by tenant id.

Counting rules

1. Unique event id. Each metered event has a stable event id; the ledger deduplicates on tenant id plus request id.
2. One event per unique attempt. Retries with a distinct event id count; replays with the same id do not.
3. No double-counting across schemes. A request that is hosted and policy-evaluated counts once.
4. No fractional events. Events are integers.
5. No backdated invoices. Late-arriving events past the 72-hour settlement window are billed in the next invoice period as a debit line.

Disputed usage window

Customers may dispute usage within 30 days of invoice date. Disputes are resolved against the ledger and the audit exports. Resolved disputes either credit the invoice (if the ledger shows over-counting) or stand (if the ledger shows correct counting).

Metric versioning

This definition is metered AI event v1, effective 2026-06-21. Future versions are committed alongside contract amendments. Customer contracts reference the version in force at signing; the version does not change mid-term without written amendment.