# Single-Price Acquisition Decision: Per-Use vs Standing Account

> Single-Price Acquisition Decision: Per-Use vs Standing Account is a paid API for AI agents from k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-20).

Returns a decision procedure helping agents determine whether to acquire a single data point via one-off per-use payment or register a standing account, including registration thresholds and credential hygiene guidance.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev/api/services/agent-single-price-acquisition-decision-when-to?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-20
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/single-price-acquisition-decision-per-use-vs-standing-account-4d4861d1
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_1fp1N-DttukmUElyLfDtN

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability single-price-acquisition-decision-per-use-vs-standing-account-4d4861d1
```

Example prompt: I need to fetch a single grocery price — should I just pay per-use right now, or is it worth setting up a standing account? Walk me through the decision, including when the threshold tips toward registration and how to handle credentials if I do go standing.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when an agent must decide on-the-fly whether to pay per-use or invest in a standing account for a specific data acquisition task, especially in x402-native agentic pipelines. Prefer it over generic cost-analysis tools when the decision involves x402 payment rails, credential hygiene for autonomous agents, or spend-cap and rate-limit considerations. It is particularly valuable for agents that encounter new data sources infrequently and need a blunt, actionable procedure rather than a marketing overview.

## Known failure modes

- Payment not included or rejected — endpoint requires x402 USDC payment per call; missing payment returns 402
- Invalid method — only GET/HEAD/DELETE accepted; POST/PUT returns 405
- Malformed query parameters — unrecognized topic values may be ignored or cause a handler error
- LLM generation failure — generationSource may fall back to 'deterministic' with reduced prose quality
- Service unavailable — upstream K-2SO provider outage returns 5xx

## How this service works

Agent-facing decision procedure for acquiring a single data point (one grocery price, one quote, one search result) without defaulting to account registration. Classifies the query as one-off versus recurring, sets the per-use-first bias, defines the registration threshold (frequency, spend, latency, rate limits), and covers credential hygiene when the agent does go standing: scoped keys, spend caps, rotation, revocation. Blunt procedure, not marketing.

## Output

A structured response containing decision procedure prose (the 'brief' field), the classified topic, a generation source indicator (llm/reasoning/deterministic), an ISO-8601 timestamp, and metadata about payment confirmation. The prose covers: one-off vs recurring classification logic, the registration threshold (based on frequency, spend, latency, and rate limits), and credential hygiene steps (scoped keys, spend caps, rotation, revocation) if the agent does register a standing account.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "meta": {
       "enum": [
        "0",
        "1"
       ],
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Set to 1 for free metadata JSON (no payment required)"
      },
      "topic": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Optional topic override for the decision procedure"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "title": "single-price acquisition decision: per-use vs standing account paid response",
     "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
     "required": [
      "ok",
      "paid",
      "service",
      "provider",
      "result"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "ok": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "paid": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "result": {
       "type": "object",
       "required": [
        "ok",
        "service"
       ],
       "properties": {
        "ok": {
         "type": "boolean",
         "description": "Handler success"
        },
        "brief": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "Decision procedure prose for agents"
        },
        "model": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "topic": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "service": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "Service slug"
        },
        "procedure": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "generatedAt": {
         "type": "string",
         "description": "ISO-8601 timestamp"
        },
        "generationSource": {
         "enum": [
          "llm",
          "reasoning",
          "deterministic"
         ],
         "type": "string"
        }
       }
      },
      "payment": {
       "type": "object",
       "properties": {
        "code": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "payer": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "detail": {
         "type": 
… (truncated)
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/single-price-acquisition-decision-per-use-vs-standing-account-4d4861d1/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/k2so-8080.on.ascii.dev/llms.txt)