For the last decade, SaaS companies billed humans in monthly seats and credits. A single data credit cost $0.05 to $0.20, masking the underlying API cost ($0.003 to $0.01) with hefty 500% to 2000% markups. With human SDRs doing 50 lookups a day, that math was tolerable. With autonomous agents doing 50,000 lookups an hour, credit waterfalls become economic suicide.
| Model | Billing Unit | Typical Markup | 10,000 Leads Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional SaaS Waterfall | Credits ($0.05 / cred) | 600% - 1600% | $500.00 - $1,120.00 |
| olywork 0% Pass-Through | Micro-USD ($0.000001) | 0% Exact Retail | $51.00 - $56.00 |
$0.003500, exactly 3,500 micro-USD is reserved and settled. No fuzzy credits, no rounding up, no expiration traps.max_budget_micro = 50000). If a waterfall hop exceeds budget, execution halts predictably before runaway costs occur.