# How billing works > How prepaid credit, per-match metering, and monthly grants fit together — what counts as a billable match, what doesn't, and how the quotas relate. Firehose billing is **prepaid credit**. Your balance funds API stream usage; subscription tiers top it up automatically each month, and you can add more any time. ## Matches are the billable unit API stream consumption is metered per **match** at **$5 per 1,000 matches**. A match is a newly-seen page delivered on the stream (deduplicated, so re-delivering the same page isn't charged twice). Your balance is the sum of your active **credit grants**. New organizations get a one-time **$5 welcome grant**. Paid subscription tiers add a **monthly grant** sized to their reviewable-match allowance (e.g. Starter's $10/mo funds 2,000 matches); monthly credit expires at the end of each period. Top-up credit never expires. ```text balance = sum of remaining credit across active grants match delivered on /v1/stream ──▶ debit $0.005 from balance balance hits $0 ──▶ new stream connections return 402 ``` ## What is and isn't metered as matches | Activity | Metered as | | --- | --- | | Pages delivered on `GET /v1/stream` | Matches ($5 / 1,000) | | Reviewing matches in the dashboard feed | Plan's monthly reviewable-match cap (not credit) | | URL Watch crawls | Plan's monthly check quota (not credit) | So the **feed** and **URL Watch** draw down their own monthly quotas, while the **API stream** draws down prepaid credit. Three separate buckets. ## Next steps What a 402 means and the rate limits that apply. What each tier includes and how grants are sized.