Pay for a catalog service from your spend-capped delegation and return the vendor response. This charges real funds. Call get_service FIRST: its requestShape.endpoints[] lists the callable paths with their HTTP method and price, and each payServiceArgs is the slug/path/method to pass here, after replacing any pathParams placeholder in path with a real value. A bare slug reaches the service base URL, which for a multi-endpoint API answers 404 instead of a payment challenge; only a single-endpoint service is called by slug alone. Send the endpoint's payServiceArgs: they carry an example only when it is paid-run or challenge. A docs example (and its invokePath) is unverified — use it only deliberately, filling any path parameter with the entity you want; otherwise build body from the endpoint description or the provider's docs. method may be omitted: it is taken from the catalog endpoint matching path (POST when the catalog names none) and echoed back under request. To accept a live quote, pass its quoteId before expiresAt with the exact same call arguments; the Router uses that cached challenge and exact fee-inclusive total. Keep maxTotalCents as an independent ceiling. Repeating an identical call (same arguments, no fresh) charges nothing new: on a deployment running API 1.48 or later it is answered within 24 hours from the first call's stored result, or its pending answer; on an older deployment it comes back as already_paid. For an ASYNC service, where you submit once and then poll a status endpoint with the same id, set fresh: true on every poll INCLUDING THE FIRST: otherwise each later poll reuses the first poll's idempotency key and gets the first poll's stored answer (or already_paid) back, so the status never advances. fresh makes each poll a distinct, separately billed call (the merchant charges per status call). Leave fresh off the submit and off any retry of a call whose outcome is unsure, because with fresh a retry is not de-duplicated and is charged again. A completed call returns paid, upstreamStatus (the vendor's HTTP status) and response (its body); paid: true with a non-2xx upstreamStatus may still have cost the merchant price. Outcomes to act on: {"status":"pending"} means the payment was made and the service is still working; call get_payment_result with its paymentId every few seconds instead of calling pay_service again. {"status":"already_paid"} means this call's idempotency key already carries a payment whose result is not replayed here (the original call failed, its 24-hour result expired, the requestId was reused for a different request, or the deployment predates result replay, API 1.48); nothing new was charged, and it does not by itself say whether the original succeeded. Read the original with get_payment_result (paymentId) or list_payments. A new requestId starts a separate, separately charged purchase: use one only after that read shows the original failed and the human still wants the result. {"error":"payment_indeterminate"} means the charge may or may not have landed: check list_payments first, and to retry reuse the returned requestId verbatim without fresh so the retry stays idempotent. {"error":"per_call_max_exceeded"} means no charge; raise maxTotalCents only after a deliberate decision and retry with the same requestId. quote_not_found, quote_expired, and quote_mismatch are named no-charge quote refusals; quote again rather than paying unpinned. {"error":"payment_failed"} is a definite decline (see code, message and retryable). These charge nothing: {"payable":false} (not payable via the Router; no upstream URL is ever returned), service_not_found (wrong slug), catalog_unavailable and delegation_lookup_failed (transient; retry later), no_delegation (call setup_delegation), router_controls_unavailable (the API behind this server is too old to enforce search, quoteId or maxTotalCents; tell the human instead of retrying without them) and credential_refused (re-authorize). A paid result also carries delegationId and budget, the spending budget after this call (capCents/spentCents/remainingCents, cents with up to four decimals), so to say what has been spent or what is left, repeat budget rather than adding up your calls yourself; budget: null means it could not be read this time, not that it is zero (call get_budget). FUNDING (funding): omit it and the call is paid with your Nevermined Subscription credits when you hold an active subscription and the endpoint carries a subscription tariff (Nevermined pays the merchant; the call costs the tariff in credits, returned if the service does not answer successfully), otherwise from your delegation; pass "subscription" or "delegation" to choose. The credits left in your monthly allowance and the price ceiling are checked only when the call is made: a credits call refused for them (insufficient_credits, subscription_cap_reached, subscription_ceiling_exceeded) charges nothing and is NOT switched to your delegation, so follow its alternative. Every result that mentions funding states which paid it: a subscription call returns funding: "subscription" with creditsCharged and creditsStatus (Committed = spent, Reserved = held or marked for refund, Refunded = returned) and no budget; quoteId, maxTotalCents and delegationId apply only to a delegation. Subscription refusals charge nothing and no credits: subscription_unavailable, no_active_subscription, subscription_not_eligible (see reason), subscription_rail_unsupported, subscription_ceiling_exceeded, insufficient_credits, subscription_cap_reached and subscription_payment_refused; each says in alternative when the delegation can pay instead. funding_undetermined means the funding could not be decided; nothing was charged, so retry. Requires your Nevermined API key on the Authorization header.