> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.livepeer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Payments Overview

> How payments work on the Livepeer network: probabilistic micropayments, ETH escrow, per-second compute billing, and gateway payment modes.

export const TableCell = ({children, align = "left", header = false, style = {}, className = "", ...rest}) => {
  const Component = header ? "th" : "td";
  return <Component className={className} style={{
    padding: "0.75rem 1rem",
    textAlign: align,
    border: header ? "none" : "1px solid var(--lp-color-border-default)",
    ...style
  }} {...rest}>
      {children}
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};

export const TableRow = ({children, header = false, hover = false, style = {}, className = "", ...rest}) => {
  const rowId = `table-row-${Math.random().toString(36).substr(2, 9)}`;
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            background-color: var(--lp-color-bg-card);
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      <tr id={rowId} className={className} style={{
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      backgroundColor: "var(--lp-color-accent-strong)",
      color: "var(--lp-color-on-accent)",
      fontWeight: "bold"
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    ...style
  }} {...rest}>
        {children}
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    </>;
};

export const StyledTable = ({children, variant = "default", style = {}, className = "", ...rest}) => {
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    bordered: {
      border: "2px solid var(--lp-color-accent)",
      backgroundColor: "var(--lp-color-bg-page)",
      overflow: "hidden"
    },
    minimal: {
      border: "none",
      backgroundColor: "transparent",
      overflow: "visible"
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    padding: 0,
    margin: 0,
    ...wrapperVariants[variant],
    ...style
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      <table data-docs-styled-table style={{
    width: "100%",
    borderCollapse: "collapse",
    borderSpacing: 0,
    margin: 0,
    backgroundColor: "transparent"
  }}>
        {children}
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    </div>;
};

export const CenteredContainer = ({children, maxWidth = "800px", padding = "0", preset = "default", width = "", minWidth = "", marginRight = "", marginBottom = "", textAlign = "", style = {}, className = "", ...rest}) => {
  const presets = {
    default: {},
    fitContent: {
      width: "fit-content",
      minWidth: "fit-content"
    },
    readable70: {
      width: "70%",
      minWidth: "fit-content"
    },
    readable80: {
      width: "80%",
      minWidth: "fit-content"
    },
    readable90: {
      width: "90%"
    },
    wide900: {
      maxWidth: "900px"
    }
  };
  const presetStyle = presets[preset] || presets.default;
  return <div className={className} style={{
    maxWidth: presetStyle.maxWidth || maxWidth,
    margin: "0 auto",
    padding: padding,
    ...presetStyle.width ? {
      width: presetStyle.width
    } : {},
    ...presetStyle.minWidth ? {
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    } : {},
    ...width ? {
      width
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    ...minWidth ? {
      minWidth
    } : {},
    ...marginRight ? {
      marginRight
    } : {},
    ...marginBottom ? {
      marginBottom
    } : {},
    ...textAlign ? {
      textAlign
    } : {},
    ...style
  }} {...rest}>
      {children}
    </div>;
};

export const CustomDivider = ({color = "var(--lp-color-border-default)", middleText = "", spacing = "default", style = {}, className = "", ...rest}) => {
  const spacingPresets = {
    default: {
      margin: "24px 0"
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    overlap: {
      margin: "-1rem 0 -1rem 0"
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    tight: {
      margin: "0 0 -1rem 0"
    },
    section: {
      margin: "0 0 -2rem 0"
    },
    sectionOverlap: {
      margin: "-1rem 0 -2rem 0"
    },
    deepOverlap: {
      margin: "-1rem 0 -1.5rem 0"
    }
  };
  const spacingStyle = spacingPresets[spacing] || spacingPresets.default;
  return <div role="separator" aria-orientation="horizontal" className={className} style={{
    display: "flex",
    alignItems: "center",
    ...spacingStyle,
    fontSize: style?.fontSize || "16px",
    height: "fit-content",
    ...style
  }} {...rest}>
      <span style={{
    marginRight: "var(--lp-spacing-px-8)",
    opacity: 0.2
  }}>
        <Icon icon="/snippets/assets/logos/Livepeer-Logo-Symbol-Theme.svg" />
      </span>
      <div style={{
    flex: 1,
    height: "1px",
    background: "var(--lp-color-border-default)",
    opacity: 0.4
  }}></div>
      {middleText && <>
          <Icon icon="circle" size={2} />
          <span style={{
    margin: "0 8px",
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    color: color,
    opacity: 0.7
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            {middleText}
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          <Icon icon="circle" size={2} />
        </>}
      <div style={{
    flex: 1,
    height: "1px",
    background: "var(--lp-color-border-default)",
    opacity: 0.4
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      <span style={{
    marginLeft: "var(--lp-spacing-px-8)",
    opacity: 0.2
  }}>
        <span style={{
    display: "inline-block",
    transform: "scaleX(-1)"
  }}>
          <Icon icon="/snippets/assets/logos/Livepeer-Logo-Symbol-Theme.svg" />
        </span>
      </span>
    </div>;
};

export const LinkArrow = ({href, label, description, newline = true, borderColor, className = '', style = {}, ...rest}) => {
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    display: 'inline-flex',
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
    gap: "var(--lp-spacing-1)",
    width: 'fit-content',
    ...borderColor && ({
      borderColor
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  return <span className={className} style={style} {...rest}>
      {newline && <br />}
      <span style={linkArrowStyle}>
        <a href={href} target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
          {label}
        </a>
        <Icon icon="arrow-up-right" size={14} color="var(--lp-color-accent)" />
      </span>
      {description && description}
      {description && <div style={{
    height: "var(--lp-spacing-3)"
  }} />}
    </span>;
};

<CenteredContainer preset="readable90">
  <Tip>Livepeer payments are Probabilistic Micropayments settled in ETH on Arbitrum One. Gateways send cryptographic tickets with each job; a fraction of those tickets are winning tickets that Orchestrators redeem on-chain.</Tip>
</CenteredContainer>

***

Payments on the Livepeer Network flow from Gateway to Orchestrator using Probabilistic Micropayments (PM). The Gateway deposits ETH into the `TicketBroker` contract on Arbitrum One. For each transcoding or AI inference job, the Gateway sends a PM ticket alongside the segment or request. Orchestrators accumulate tickets; when a ticket is a winning ticket (determined by a verifiable random draw), the Orchestrator submits it to `TicketBroker` and receives the face value in ETH.

From a developer's perspective, this mechanism operates transparently inside go-livepeer. The relevant choices are the payment mode (on-chain vs off-chain Gateway) and the pricing configuration.

<CustomDivider />

## Gateway Payment Modes

The `on-chain` and `off-chain` labels in Livepeer describe how a **Gateway** handles Ethereum payment operations, not the type of workload.

<StyledTable variant="bordered">
  <thead>
    <TableRow header>
      <TableCell header>Mode</TableCell>
      <TableCell header>ETH key location</TableCell>
      <TableCell header>PM bookkeeping</TableCell>
      <TableCell header>Typical use</TableCell>
    </TableRow>
  </thead>

  <tbody>
    <TableRow>
      <TableCell>**On-chain Gateway**</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Inside the go-livepeer process</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Handled by go-livepeer directly</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Operators running go-livepeer broadcaster nodes</TableCell>
    </TableRow>

    <TableRow>
      <TableCell>**Off-chain Gateway**</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Remote signer service (separate process)</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Delegated to remote signer</TableCell>
      <TableCell>Python, browser, or mobile Gateway clients; multi-tenant clearinghouses</TableCell>
    </TableRow>
  </tbody>
</StyledTable>

Off-chain Gateways use the remote signer architecture introduced in go-livepeer PRs #3791 and #3822. The media routing logic is separated from Ethereum signing, enabling Gateway implementations in languages other than Go.

See <LinkArrow href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/remote-signer" label="Remote Signer" newline={false} /> for the protocol details.

<CustomDivider />

## Probabilistic Micropayments

The PM mechanism avoids on-chain settlement for every individual job by using a lottery-based scheme:

1. The Gateway deposits ETH into `TicketBroker` as a sender deposit (held in escrow) and a penalty escrow (slashed on misbehaviour)
2. For each job, the Gateway sends a signed ticket specifying a face value and a probability (win probability = face value / expected payment per ticket)
3. The Orchestrator determines whether the ticket is a winner by checking a verifiable random function against the ticket parameters
4. Winning tickets are submitted to `TicketBroker` on-chain; the Orchestrator receives the face value
5. Non-winning tickets are discarded

The expected payment per ticket equals `face value × win probability`. Over many tickets, the Orchestrator receives approximately the correct total compensation without an on-chain transaction for every job.

The Gateway's ETH deposit covers the expected value of outstanding winning tickets. If a Gateway's deposit falls below a threshold, Orchestrators will reject jobs until the deposit is topped up.

<CustomDivider />

## Batch vs Per-Second Billing

Batch AI pipelines and transcoding jobs use a per-output-unit pricing model: the Gateway pays per pixel transcoded or per output pixel generated. The face value and win probability are configured to make the expected payment match the agreed per-unit price.

The `live-video-to-video` pipeline (Cascade) uses per-second compute billing. The Gateway charges the client per wall-clock second of active inference. The `LivePaymentSender` interface in go-livepeer handles fee calculation and ticket generation for this billing model.

See <LinkArrow href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/per-second-compute" label="Per-Second Compute" newline={false} /> for how per-second billing works and how to configure pricing.

<CustomDivider />

## TicketBroker

The `TicketBroker` contract manages ETH deposits and winning ticket redemption on Arbitrum One. It is part of the `livepeer/protocol` contract suite deployed on `arbitrum-one-mainnet`.

Contract addresses are in the <LinkArrow href="/v2/about/resources/reference/livepeer-contract-addresses" label="Contract Addresses" newline={false} /> reference.

<CustomDivider />

## Related Pages

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Probabilistic Micropayments" icon="coin" href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/probabilistic-micropayments" arrow horizontal>
    PM mechanism internals: tickets, win probability, and escrow management.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Per-Second Compute" icon="clock" href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/per-second-compute" arrow horizontal>
    Billing model for the live-video-to-video pipeline.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Remote Signer" icon="key" href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/remote-signer" arrow horizontal>
    Off-chain Gateway pattern separating Ethereum signing from media routing.
  </Card>

  <Card title="ETH Escrow and Deposits" icon="lock" href="/v2/developers/guides/payments/eth-escrow-and-deposits" arrow horizontal>
    Managing sender deposits and penalty escrow in TicketBroker.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>