> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.mediafier.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.mediafier.ai/partners/provider-earnings-and-marketplace-economics.md).

# Provider Earnings & Marketplace Economics

How tool publishers earn per call and how the platform clears against the same ledger customers see.

> **Tool publishers earn per call. The platform clears against the same ledger every other tool call clears against.** Marketplace economics are a thin shell over the same governed billing chain the rest of the platform runs on.

***

## What this page locks down

Three questions every prospective tool publisher walks in with:

1. **Where does the money come from?** Per-call metering against the calling organization's credit wallet.
2. **How does the platform attribute earnings to the publisher?** The trace ID. Every governed call carries one; the audit row links the call to the publisher's listing; the ledger movement carries the publisher's earnings split.
3. **What does the publisher have to do to participate?** Build to the platform's MCP server contract, get listed, and bind credentials through the platform's gateway-injected credential path. The platform does the rest.

***

## How earnings accrue

Marketplace economics are governed by the same gateway chain described in [The Gateway](/platform/gateway.md). Every call to a listed MCP:

1. Is identity-verified and tenant-isolated like any other call.
2. Is metered against the calling organization's wallet at the billing stage, before dispatch.
3. Produces an audit record carrying the trace ID, the calling organization, the surface called, and the cost.
4. Produces a corresponding ledger movement that attributes the publisher's earnings against the same trace ID.

Earnings accrue per call. There is no separate "marketplace billing pipeline" running alongside the platform's billing chain. Publisher earnings are a property of the same ledger that meters every governed call.

***

## What gets metered, what does not

| Event                                                      | Earnings impact                                           |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| A successful tool call to a listed resource                | Earnings accrue to the publisher per the listing's price. |
| A tool call rejected by gateway authorization              | Not metered. No earnings.                                 |
| A tool call rejected by the wallet (insufficient credits)  | Not metered. No earnings.                                 |
| A tool call where the publisher's runtime returns an error | Per the listing — see "Earnings on errors" below.         |
| Discovery / listing browse traffic                         | Not metered.                                              |

Earnings are tied to runtime work the platform actually delivered to the calling agent. Calls the gateway rejects before dispatch do not generate earnings — and they do not generate charges to the calling organization either.

***

## Earnings on errors

The platform's posture on runtime errors:

* **Validation errors** the gateway catches before dispatch are not metered. Neither the publisher nor the platform earns on them.
* **Runtime errors** that come back from the publisher's runtime are metered per the listing's published rule. Some listings charge for attempted work; some only for successful outcomes. The behaviour is declared by the publisher at listing time.

The trace ID joins the runtime's error envelope, the audit row, and the ledger movement, so a customer-support investigation into a contested charge has the full chain available.

***

## Settlement and payout

Settlement runs against the same ledger. The platform commits to:

* **Per-call attribution.** Every earnings accrual is tied to a specific call's trace ID. There is no aggregate-only accrual.
* **Append-only ledger movements.** Earnings are recorded as immutable ledger entries; corrections happen as new offsetting entries, not by editing history.
* **Auditable splits.** Each accrual records the calling organization, the publisher, the surface, the cost, and the split shape.

Specific split percentages, payout cadence, settlement currency, and clearing model are negotiated as part of the publisher agreement. Those terms are not published in launch documentation; the agreement is the source of truth for an individual publisher's commercial terms.

***

## What publishers can rely on before building

Three things the platform commits to up front, so a publisher can size the work and the economics before writing code:

* **Per-call metering at the gateway.** No surprises. Calls that run are metered; calls that don't, aren't.
* **Trace-correlated audit.** Every accrual is reconstructable from the call's trace ID — no black-box aggregation.
* **The same governance contract as first-party tools.** Identity, org isolation, authorization, billing, audit. A marketplace MCP doesn't get a fast-path or an exemption; it doesn't have to ship one either. The platform's chain takes care of it.

That contract is what makes earnings defensible end to end. A publisher earning under marketplace economics has the same evidence base as a first-party tool.

***

## What this page is not

* It is not the publishing onboarding guide. The full path — contract, listing review, credential binding, capability description — ships in [Publishing to Mediafier's Marketplace](/partners/publishing-to-the-marketplace.md).
* It is not a price list or a payout-percentage table. Those terms are publisher-specific and negotiated in the publisher agreement.
* It is not a guarantee of marketplace listing. Listing is reviewed and accepted on contract — see [The Marketplace](/partners/marketplace.md).

***

## Where to go next

| If you're…                                             | Read next                                                                           |
| ------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Looking at the marketplace itself                      | [The Marketplace](/partners/marketplace.md)                                         |
| Looking at how per-call billing works for the customer | [Credits & Billing](/overview/credits-and-billing.md)                               |
| Looking at the broader engagement structure            | [Credits & Billing](/overview/credits-and-billing.md)                               |
| Building an MCP to publish                             | [Publishing to Mediafier's Marketplace](/partners/publishing-to-the-marketplace.md) |