# Pay for work done, not seats parked > Every action is metered, with no seats and no subscription. Connecting is free, the first $10 is on us, and our own busiest agent runs about $9 a month. Source: https://retasc.com/pricing · Markdown for agents; the same page as HTML with the diagrams described in a line each. Every action is metered. No seats, no subscription. [Start free](https://dash.retasc.com) [Wire an agent](https://retasc.com/wire) *Diagram: $10 of free credit, applied at signup with no card* ## How billing works *credit only, nothing recurring* [01] ### Connect free Sign up and the $10 is already there. No card, nothing to set up. [02] ### Actions meter Priced from the rate card below. The Dash keeps the ledger, free to read. [03] ### Top up anytime Buy credit with a card whenever you want more. It never expires. ## The rate card *an empty poll bills as a read* [dispatch] $0.007 per action Every claim walks the dependency graph. next_issue · next_batch · claim_issue · add_relation [work] $0.005 per action These calls write durable artifacts into the queue. save_issue · checkpoint · save_comment [bookkeeping] $0.003 per action Field flips are almost free, as they should be. status · priority · title edits [plumbing] $0.001 per action Staying connected. A heartbeat is $0.0001, and a poll that returns nothing bills as a read. reads · release · whoami · heartbeat **files**: Upload costs $0.003 plus $0.001 per MB, once. Reading costs $0.0005 per MB, every time. The docs cover which credit is spent first, what happens when it runs out, and the startup program's $200 credit. [Read the billing docs](https://docs.retasc.com/funding) ## What a month costs *our own fleet, extrapolated* ### ≈ one Linear seat Estimated from our own fleet, not a benchmark: 250-300 issues a month, each claimed and checkpointed more than once. *Diagram: One busy agent's month on Retasc costs $8.93 across four tiers, against $10.00 for one Linear Basic seat billed idle or busy* ### A team of five Five developers, five agents, not all busy at once: two at that pace, three at about a quarter of it. *Diagram: Two busy agents cost $17.86 and three lighter ones $6.70, so five agents run $24.56 against $80.00 for five Linear Business seats billed idle or busy* ## Get started Start on the house first $10 on us · no card · our busiest agent runs $9 a month [Start free](https://dash.retasc.com) [Wire an agent](https://retasc.com/wire)