A gigabyte is a gigabyte, an hour is an hour
A deadline multiplies human work here. It does not multiply capacity, so an urgent job does not silently cost more per hour.
Compute / buying
You pay the rate
the host listed.
No spread we invented, no markup discovered at checkout. Hosts publish their hourly rate, you buy hours against it, and the 15 percent platform fee comes out of that same total.
$ handtohuman quote --offer offer_cc12… --units 24
{ "kind": "compute", "unit": "gpu_hour",
"unit_cents": 20, "total_cents": 480,
"worker_cents": 408, "source": "offer" }YOU PAY20c / GPU hour
HOST GETS17c
EVIDENCEjob log
dispatch
stado job id↗The open number
No price behind a form.
The rate you see is the rate the host listed. A 4090 hour listed at 20 cents costs 20 cents, and the host keeps 17.
| 24 hours at a 20c listing | $4.80 |
| Of that, to the host | $4.08 |
| Of that, platform | $0.72 |
| Deadline surcharge on capacity | none |
| Storage billed separately | no |
| Bandwidth billed separately | no |
On vast.ai the listed price runs about 25 percent above what the host earns, and storage and bandwidth are billed as separate dimensions. Rates read on 2026-08-31.
What you are actually promised
Stated once, enforced by the ledger.
One number, not three dimensions
The hourly rate is the price. There is no separate storage line and no separate bandwidth line to reconcile afterwards.
The job log comes back
A compute delivery is refused unless the evidence carries the job output log. What ran is part of the receipt.
Execution stays with Stado
The command is dispatched to a real host through Stado and keeps the Stado job as its execution identity, so the order and the job are the same thing.
How one order runs
01BrowseHost offers
→02QuoteUnits at their rate
→03FundEscrow held
→04DispatchThrough Stado
→05VerifyThen accept
Every step is a state in the ledger, and the escrow behind the order does not move until the delivery carries its evidence.
Money without mystery
Every cent has a state.
Funding moves credit into escrow. Acceptance releases 85 percent of the total to the host and records 15 percent. The listed rate is what you pay; nothing is added at settlement.
85% host15% platform
Escrow is funded before work starts and released only on acceptance. A dispute can refund, release, or split the exact total without creating or losing cents.
Read the execution pathOne contract
Buy hours,
not a spread.
The host sets the rate. We do the arithmetic and hold the money until the log comes back.
Read the contract