What counts as an impression

An impression only bills - and only pays - after the sponsored line was provably on screen. The rule is short, both sides of the market are measured by it, and everything that cannot be proven simply does not count.

The rule

A verified impression requires all of the following at once, for a cumulative 5 seconds:

• the line is rendered on a surface you enabled,
• your agent is genuinely thinking,
• the editor window is focused and on screen.

Lose focus, and the clock stops. The agent pauses on a permission prompt, and the clock stops. Minimize the window, and the clock stops. If any part of the picture is unknown, the time is not counted - the contract's rule is that uncertainty never bills. An ad shown to a minimized window is not an impression, the advertiser is not charged for it, and a developer is never paid for one. Both sides are measured by the same rule.

Counted once, however unreliable the network

Every event carries a random identifier, and the server treats that identifier as the truth: a duplicate report of the same event is recognized and dropped, the server applies its own receipt timestamps rather than trusting the client's clock, and the visible time a client reports is capped server-side. A flaky connection can delay an event; it cannot double it.

Clicks

A click on the sponsored line bills the advertiser a multiple of that placement's impression price, and your 70% share applies to it identically. Clicks only bill on surfaces that can verify them; the terminal renders its line as a normal terminal hyperlink, so terminal clicks are never billed or tracked.

What this buys you

The strict rule is the product. Advertisers pay only for genuine attention, which is what makes the marketplace worth bidding in; developers earn from every impression that passes, which is what makes the credit real. If a line rendered but nothing was credited, the honest reasons are listed in Shown but not credited.