Three ways to use it,
each priced before you start.
A free result you can get without an account, metered software you call from your own code, and fixed-fee engineering a senior power-systems engineer produces for your site. They are different things with different prices, and none of them is billed by the hour.
Three ways to use GridForge
- 1 · A free result
Find what binds your hall
Seven numbers you already know. The engine returns the constraint that binds first, the racks the hall carries as found and after relief, and which inputs were assumed. No card, no account. Every figure carries an evidence class, and the calibration record is published as it stands.
Run free capacity check - 2 · Metered software
Call the engine from your own code
Start on a free allowance of 25 units a month, no card. Then pay as you go at €2 a unit under a monthly cap you set, from €20 to €2,000: invoiced monthly in arrears, with a hard stop at the cap. Take a plan when the volume warrants it: API — Triage starts to cost less from 450 units a month.
Get the free allowance - 3 · An engineering engagement
A fixed fee, a named deliverable
When you need an engineer's opinion on a hall, not an API response. Fixed fee agreed before we start, produced and reviewed by a person. Most halls begin with the Density Screen, from €4,500, which credits in full against the study it usually leads to. API responses are screening output and never carry an engineer's sign-off.
See the engagements
Engineering engagements
Every engagement is a concrete deliverable, fixed-fee and agreed before we start, not retainer hours. Most halls begin with the Density Screen, which credits in full against the study it usually leads to.
Fixed fee, named artefact, no hourly billing.
Start where your question is. Most halls start with the screen, because it costs less than the meeting you would otherwise have about whether to have a meeting.
Density Screen
A five-day screening opinion on one hall: what binds first, how many racks of your target platform it carries as it stands and after the costed ladder, which item sets the date, and the list of inputs nobody has measured.
- Artefact
- Density Screen document (HTML + Markdown), the first six rungs of the headroom ladder, and a data request you can send to your own engineers verbatim.
- Turnaround
- 5 working days
- Price
- €4,500
Capacity & Density Envelope Study — deposit
€9,000Reserves senior engineering capacity for the full study: the complete constraint ladder, every architecture compared, time to power, sensitivity, economics and a machine-readable model pack you keep.
You receive
Envelope Study (HTML + Markdown), model_pack.json, and a 90-minute walkthrough with your engineering team.
Procurement Specification
€18,000The study says what binds and what relieves it. This is what you send to suppliers: a tender-ready technical specification for one relief, with every duty derived from the capacity model and quoted at your site conditions — then your bids compared in racks and weeks, not only in euros.
You receive
Technical specification (HTML + Markdown), a machine-readable response schedule, and a bid comparison against the capacity model showing what each response does to the energisation date.
Portfolio Screen — deposit
€15,000Five to fifteen halls ranked by deliverable compute, time to power and capital cost per rack, under one methodology so the ranking is comparable.
You receive
Portfolio Screen document and one model pack per hall.
Hall Watch
€6,000 / quarterWe keep your hall's model live. Every quarter — and whenever you update an input — it is re-solved and you get a change note: what moved, which input moved it, and whether it changes the decision.
You receive
A quarterly change note naming the inputs that moved the answer, plus a re-run whenever you update the hall's numbers (up to 20 an hour). Nothing material to report is itself a reportable answer, and we say so in three lines rather than padding it.
Not sure which? Run the free qualifier first. It names the constraint that binds your hall and the inputs nobody has measured, and it costs nothing. If it tells you the answer is no, that is the cheapest no you will ever get.
Metered software
The same engine, called directly. Start on a free allowance, move to pay-as-you-go under a monthly cap you set, and take a plan when the volume warrants one. API responses are screening output: an engagement is what puts an engineer's name on an opinion.
Free allowance · 25 units a month · no card
What one operation costs
One unit price for every billable operation: €2 a unit. Each endpoint weighs a published number of units, so a constraint screen and a full study are not billed alike. 25 units a month, no card. Free-allowance usage is never invoiced; when it runs out the engine answers 402 and nothing is charged.
| Operation | Endpoint | Units | Pay as you go |
|---|---|---|---|
| gridforge_qualify | /v1/qualify | 0 | free |
| gridforge_portfolio | /v1/portfolio | 1 per hall | €2 per hall |
| gridforge_screen | /v1/screen | 1 | €2 |
| gridforge_bids | /v1/bids | 2 | €4 |
| gridforge_diff | /v1/diff | 2 | €4 |
| gridforge_proposal | /v1/proposal | 2 | €4 |
| gridforge_spec | /v1/spec | 3 | €6 |
| gridforge_study | /v1/study | 5 | €10 |
| gridforge_estimate | /v1/estimate | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
| gridforge_compare | /v1/compare | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
| gridforge_power_deploy_bids | /v1/power/deploy/bids | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
| gridforge_power_deploy_spec | /v1/power/deploy/spec | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
| gridforge_power_assess | /v1/power/assess | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
| gridforge_power_deploy_assess | /v1/power/deploy/assess | Not yet available — awaiting engine release | |
An operation marked not available is in the engine's published catalogue but is not served by the engine that is deployed today. It cannot be called, so it cannot be billed. This table follows the deployed engine and lists the operation, with its units and price, once the release that serves it is live.
How it is billed
A month's charge is the net ledger units for the UTC month (charges minus refunds) at €2 a unit, invoiced monthly in arrears. A month whose charge is under the €5 minimum invoice is not invoiced on its own: it is carried forward and added to the next month, and so on from month to month. A balance that never reaches €5 is never invoiced. A request that is rejected, unauthorised, invalid or fails is refunded and never charged, and a retry with the same Idempotency-Key is never charged twice. Free-allowance usage is never invoiced. The customer's own monthly cap is a hard stop: beyond it the engine answers 402 and nothing more accrues.
You set a monthly cap between €20 and €2,000. The engine stops at it. It does not go over.
When a plan is cheaper
- API — Triage (€900 a month, 600 units included) costs less than pay-as-you-go from 450 units a month; below that, metering costs less.
- API — Scale (€2,900 a month, 2,500 units included) costs less than pay-as-you-go from 1,450 units a month; below that, metering costs less. That is above the 1,000 units the highest pay-as-you-go cap allows (€2,000), so a cap-limited account cannot reach it.
- API — Platform (€7,500 a month, 10,000 units included) costs less than pay-as-you-go from 3,750 units a month; below that, metering costs less. That is above the 1,000 units the highest pay-as-you-go cap allows (€2,000), so a cap-limited account cannot reach it.
Computed from the plan prices and the unit price above. Plans have no overage: past the included units the engine answers 402.
What will this cost?
Pick an operation and a volume. The figures are worked out from the same published unit weights the engine meters, at €2 a unit.
This call
€2
1 unit
This volume, pay as you go
€40
20 units a month
Cheapest way to buy it
Free allowance
€0
- 1 unit per call.
- The 25-unit free allowance covers 25 calls of this size.
- This volume fits inside the free allowance: no card, no invoice.
The engine's own live estimate (/v1/estimate) is not available yet: the figures above are computed from the published unit weights, not read back from the engine.
Plans, the MCP install and the tool schemas are on the developers page.
Not sure which step to start with?
Start with the free capacity check on your hall: seven numbers, no account, and it names the constraint that binds first. The free Time-to-Power scenario comparison is not available yet: it is waiting on an engine release, and nothing is charged for it either way. The Density Screen is the next step, at the price above.
Run the free check →