Perception reference
Pricing
How Perception jobs are priced in USD and charged to your account balance.
Perception jobs are billed in USD from the same account balance as Drex. Top-ups and pay as you go work as described in Drex pricing.
Prices per tool
Models & pricing in the console shows each tool's current USD price per 1,000 pages, or per 1,000 targets for Ground. Each job keeps the price in force when it was admitted. The Usage page and a settled job's result show the actual USD charge.
Eligible retained results can be reused where the tool supports compatible reuse. The console shows the price in force for each tool.
Before a run, the console shows an estimated USD price when its input can be counted. After it finishes, the charge remains pending until billing settles; the console then shows the actual amount charged to the account. Unknown charges are never shown as zero.
When you are charged
- Admission: a prepaid job reserves a per-document allowance before processing, capped by the available balance; explicitly enabled auto-pay retains invoice-backed funding. Other running work's reservations are unavailable to a new job. It is not admitted while the account is paused for an unpaid invoice. Otherwise the create answers
402. - Charge: the final USD amount is charged once after the job finishes, using its pinned price and final billable usage. Failed jobs and jobs cancelled before completion settle at zero charge.
- Failed: a job that ends
failedis never charged, even if it produced partial results. - Cancelled: a job cancelled before completion is not charged, including delivered parts.
- Funding exhausted: running work is cancelled without charge when its funds run out or expire. New unfunded work is refused. This creates no usage debt to recover from a later top-up.
- Free: reading, listing, deleting and downloading jobs, uploads and saved schemas cost nothing and work at any balance.
The API's usage fields are documented in Jobs.
Current component prices
USD per 1,000 page-equivalents; Ground is per 1,000 requested targets and has no effort setting.
| Method | Low | Medium | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| parse | $3.5 | $3.5 | $7 |
| extract | $12 | $15 | $20 |
| classify | $6.2 | $7.65 | $9.3 |
| split | $5 | $6.25 | $7.5 |
| ground | $12 | $12 | $12 |
Each composite price includes Parse. Reused components cost 10% of their fresh price.
| Method | Effort | Fresh Parse | Fresh method | Cached Parse + fresh method | Fully cached |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| parse | low | $3.5 | $0 | — | $0.35 |
| parse | medium | $3.5 | $0 | — | $0.35 |
| parse | high | $7 | $0 | — | $0.7 |
| extract | low | $3.5 | $8.5 | $8.85 | $1.2 |
| extract | medium | $3.5 | $11.5 | $11.85 | $1.5 |
| extract | high | $7 | $13 | $13.7 | $2 |
| classify | low | $3.5 | $2.7 | $3.05 | $0.62 |
| classify | medium | $3.5 | $4.15 | $4.5 | $0.765 |
| classify | high | $7 | $2.3 | $3 | $0.93 |
| split | low | $3.5 | $1.5 | $1.85 | $0.5 |
| split | medium | $3.5 | $2.75 | $3.1 | $0.625 |
| split | high | $7 | $0.5 | $1.2 | $0.75 |
| ground | — | $0 | $12 | — | $1.2 |
Spreadsheets count 500 non-empty cells as one page per sheet, rounded up. Audio counts each started minute as one page. A Ground target is counted on each requested file. Extract and Ground include OCR of images embedded in a document: images are not counted as extra pages or targets, and a job's cost.lines list only its billed pages or targets. On some jobs credits may still include image OCR; it is not charged.
Cache prices apply only when NDI confirms compatible reuse within the account. New fields can reuse Parse while still requiring fresh extraction. Changed options, expired results and workbook processing can require fresh work. Provider prompt caching alone is not result reuse.
A separately requested standalone Parse has its own charge. A later Extract, Classify or Split call pays its discounted reused Parse component plus new method work; it does not pay for fresh Parse again. Reading an existing result and replaying the same request with its original idempotency key add no charge.
Each accepted job pins its price version and effort. Future updates affect new jobs only. Previous credit-priced versions keep their original settlement rules.