Compute Units

Every request costs Compute Units (CU) — a weight that reflects how much work the method puts on a node. Light lookups cost 1 CU, heavy scans up to 75. Your plan sets the price per CU (Billing); the free plan meters usage but bills nothing.

How metering works

• Weight is per (chain, method) — the full current matrix is below; any (chain, method) pair not listed costs 1 CU.
• The meter matches the JSON-RPC method field (for REST chains, the final path segment).
• Cached responses (X-Cache: HIT) are still metered — the weight pays for the API call, not only node I/O.
• Batch requests are metered per inner call.
• WebSocket streams are free after the handshake (WebSockets).
• Each project has a daily CU quota (default 100,000). Exceeding it returns JSON-RPC -32005 (compute unit quota exceeded) until the 24-hour window rolls over.
• Methods in the heavy class (eth_getLogs, debug_*/trace_*, …) also consume the per-plan heavy-method budget, independent of CU.

Method weights

Current live values (weights are operator-tunable; this table tracks the deployed defaults).

EVM — Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain

Identical weights on /eth, /bsc, /polygon, /avax:

CU	Methods
0	eth_chainId · net_version · net_listening · web3_clientVersion
1	eth_blockNumber · eth_gasPrice · eth_maxPriorityFeePerGas
5	eth_feeHistory · eth_getBalance · eth_getTransactionCount · eth_getTransactionByHash · eth_getTransactionReceipt
10	eth_getBlockByNumber · eth_getBlockByHash · eth_getCode · eth_getStorageAt
15	eth_call · eth_estimateGas
20	eth_sendRawTransaction
75	eth_getLogs

(/eth additionally prices eth_sendTransaction at 20 CU — moot in practice: nodes hold no accounts, sign locally and use eth_sendRawTransaction.)

Bitcoin

CU	Methods
1	getblockcount · getbestblockhash · getblockhash · getblockchaininfo · getnetworkinfo · estimatesmartfee
5	getmempoolinfo · gettxout
10	getblock · getrawtransaction
20	sendrawtransaction

Litecoin & Dash

CU	Methods
1	getblockcount · getbestblockhash · getblockchaininfo · getnetworkinfo
10	getblock · getrawtransaction
20	sendrawtransaction

Bitcoin Cash and Liquid currently meter every method at 1 CU.

TRON (REST, /tron/wallet/<method>)

CU	Methods
0	getnodeinfo
1	getnowblock
5	getaccount · gettransactionbyid · gettransactioninfobyid
10	getblockbynum · getblockbyid
15	createtransaction
20	broadcasttransaction · broadcasthex · triggersmartcontract

XRP Ledger

CU	Methods
0	server_info · fee
1	server_state · ledger_current
5	account_info · tx
10	ledger
20	submit · submit_multisigned

NEAR

CU	Methods
0	status · network_info
5	block · chunk · tx
10	query · EXPERIMENTAL_tx_status
20	broadcast_tx_async · broadcast_tx_commit

Sui

CU	Methods
0	sui_getReferenceGasPrice
1	sui_getLatestCheckpointSequenceNumber · sui_getTotalTransactionBlocks
5	sui_getObject · sui_getTransactionBlock
10	sui_multiGetTransactionBlocks
15	sui_dryRunTransactionBlock · sui_devInspectTransactionBlock
20	sui_executeTransactionBlock

TON (JSON-RPC form, POST /ton)

CU	Methods
0	getConfigAll
1	getMasterchainInfo
5	getTransactions · lookupBlock · getShardBlockProof
10	runGetMethod
20	sendBoc · sendBocReturnHash

Everything else

Stellar, Cosmos Hub, Aptos and Cardano currently meter all methods at 1 CU/call, as does any method not listed above on any chain. Weights may be introduced per method over time — the tables here follow the deployed values.

Reading your usage

Per project, last 24 h / day / month:

curl "https://api.au.ro/api/v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID/usage?period=day" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

{
  "project_id": "1ea310a1-...",
  "total_cu": 2,
  "request_count": 2,
  "period": "24h",
  "by_chain": {
    "btc": { "cu": 1, "request_count": 1 },
    "eth": { "cu": 1, "request_count": 1 }
  }
}

period accepts day (default 24 h) and month (last 30 days). The dashboard's Usage page renders the same data as charts, including a per-method breakdown; the tenant-wide money view is on Billing.

Budgeting tips

• eth_getLogs at 75 CU dominates most EVM bills — narrow block ranges and prefer event-indexing services for large scans.
• Static lookups (eth_chainId, net_version, server_info, status) are free (0 CU) — call away.
• Cached short-TTL methods (eth_blockNumber, eth_gasPrice, getblockcount) are cheap and fast; don't build your own cache for them.
• Submits/broadcasts are the priciest common class (20 CU) and are never cached — batch reads, not sends.