---
title: Wallet and money
description: How the looot prepaid balance works, what available and reserved mean, and where to top up.
---

looot is prepaid. Your workspace has one balance in USD, and every paid run draws from it. There
is no subscription and no per-provider bill.

## Before your first run

A new workspace starts at $0. There is no trial or free credit. `looot balance` prints the minimum
top-up and a link to pay while your balance is below it. The same number is
`topUpLink.minimumUsd` in `GET /v1/balance` and in the [`balance`](/mcp-tools/balance) MCP tool. See
[Top up](/money/top-up).

## Check your balance

<CodeGroup>

```bash CLI
looot balance
```

```json MCP
balance {}
```

</CodeGroup>

It shows what is **available** and what is **reserved** by runs still in progress. Your token
needs the `usage.read` scope. Over REST it is `GET /v1/balance`; over MCP it is the `balance`
tool, which also returns `topUpLink` with the minimum amount and a dashboard link.

## What a run does to it

| Step | What happens to your balance |
| --- | --- |
| Admitted | The endpoint's estimated cost leaves available and goes into reserved (the hold). See [Holds](/money/holds). |
| Completed | You are charged the actual cost (`actualCost`). The rest of the hold returns to available. |
| Failed at the provider | Charged $0. The whole hold returns to available. |
| Refused before it starts | No hold is taken. Nothing is charged. See [What's free](/money/free-and-failures). |
| Outcome uncertain | The run shows `reconciliation_pending` and the hold stays reserved until it is resolved. |

## Your ledger

```bash
looot ledger list --limit 50
```

Needs the `usage.read` scope. Every balance change is a ledger entry: [`top_up`](/mcp-tools/top-up), `trial_credit` (only on older workspaces; new workspaces get no trial credit), `reservation` (a hold), `release`
(a hold returned), `charge` and `refund`. Pass the `nextCursor` value with `--cursor` for the next
page. See [Receipts](/money/receipts) for reading what a specific run charged.

## The rest of this section

- [Quotes](/money/quotes): what a row or [`inspect`](/mcp-tools/inspect) tells you before you run it.
- [Holds](/money/holds): reservation, settle, release, and `reconciliation_pending`.
- [What's free](/money/free-and-failures): every refusal and failure that never charges you.
- [Cost cap](/money/cost-cap): `fallback.maxCostUsd` and what happens when every provider is over it.
- [Settlement ceiling](/money/settlement-ceiling): how far a charge can go above the estimate.
- [Receipts](/money/receipts): reading `actualCost`, `route.summary` and the ledger.
- [Top up](/money/top-up): the Stripe Checkout link, from the dashboard or the `top_up` tool.

<Related />