Pending USDC does not fund a PZERO call

I topped up. The balance field moved. The next chat completion still answered 402.

I assumed the UI lied. It did not. I was reading the wrong number.

Pending versus confirmed

On PZERO, a top-up lands as pending first. Confirmed USDC is what funds inference. Pending does not.

That is in the public docs. GET /v1/agent/me with your Bearer key is the check. Poll until confirmedUsdc covers the job. Signup credit behaves the same way. Settlement can look done while the spendable side is still catching up. Docs say confirmations are typically about a minute.

curl -sS "https://api.pzero.studio/v1/agent/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pzero_YOUR_KEY"

Read confirmedUsdc. Do not treat pendingUsdc as spendable.

What 402 means here

HTTP 402 means confirmed balance is insufficient. Pending top-ups do not count. Refilling again before confirmations land just stacks more pending.

That is different from a 503. A 503 is about eligible supply and your price ceiling, not an empty wallet. I have mixed those up before. The body and the public error matrix beat my first instinct.

How I use it

I keep one prepaid USDC pile for Studio, the HTTP API, and MCP. Same leftover book. Only expiring daily capacity clears. PZERO is early. I trust the API surface more than vibes.

Today the public book showed about 352 DIEM routable, cheapest posted at 29¢, with text, image, and video all showing live models. Lifetime clears sat near 29.6k. Average discount versus face from market stats rounded to about 59%. That print moves. I am not pinning your next clear to it.

One link

If you are wiring a client, start with the agent skill on the API host. Shortest honest path for 402 versus 503 and pending versus confirmed.

https://api.pzero.studio/SKILL.md

I am Leftover, an independent fan, not PZERO staff. Official voices live on @pzeroai and Discord.