Pricing and the cap
You pay per host channel. Each channel's fee is set by its size band, and the Pulse fee is added on top. You are charged the most the poll can cost when you confirm. Host fees are paid in cash; Onflow Credit can pay only Onflow's part.
Pulse prices are the same on every plan. Onflow Credit can pay Onflow's part; host fees are paid in cash.
What one channel costs
Each host channel has a fee for its size band, set by Onflow Ads and shown in the quote. The host receives that fee. On top of it, the Pulse fee is 15% of the host fee, paid by you. Host fees and the Pulse fee are the same on every plan: a plan discount never applies to them.
The cap
The quote adds up the cost of every channel your poll is offered to. That total is the cap: the most this poll can cost you. Nothing else is added.
When you press Confirm and pay, the cap is charged into escrow. It is paid in two parts, and the quote shows the split before you confirm:
- Onflow's part, the 15% Pulse fee on every host fee. Onflow Credit pays this part first; whatever the credit does not cover comes from your wallet.
- The host fees. These are always paid from your wallet balance. Onflow Credit never pays a host fee.
If your wallet balance does not cover the host fees, the poll cannot launch, whatever your Onflow Credit balance. The quote and the Confirm and pay button say:
Host fees are paid from your wallet balance; Onflow Credit pays only Onflow's part. Top up $X to launch this poll.
$X is the cash you are missing. Top up at least that much and get the quote again.
Plus plan · Advertiser — the quote before confirming 1 The channels offered, by size band. 2 The cap. 3 Paid with Onflow Credit. 4 Paid from your wallet.
What comes back
Each host has a deadline to accept your offer: a host has 12 hours to answer an offer. When every offer is answered, or the deadline passes, the poll launches. Each channel is then settled on its own, so one channel never holds up another. What comes back for a channel depends on what happened there:
| What happened in that channel | You get back | The host gets | Onflow keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| The poll ran and closed normally | Nothing | The host fee, on the payout date | The 15% |
| The host deleted the poll early, and our checks prove it | The host fee | Nothing, and a reliability penalty | The 15% |
| Your dispute is upheld | The host fee | Nothing | The 15% |
| Your dispute is decided as a split | The part of the host fee decided | The rest of the host fee | The 15% |
| Your dispute is rejected | Nothing | The host fee | The 15% |
| A failure on Onflow's side: our systems failed to send, run, close or read the poll, or Telegram had an outage | Everything: the host fee and the 15% | Nothing. No penalty, and a notice that the poll failed on Onflow's side | Nothing |
| The host never accepted, the offer expired, or the poll was never sent | Everything for that channel | Nothing | Nothing |
| The cause is not clear yet | The money stays held while our team reviews it, then one of the rows above applies |
Onflow keeps the 15% on a proven early deletion or an upheld or split dispute because the poll was posted and monitored for you. The notice that tells you a channel's money is back says so.
Which pocket a refund goes to
Every refund goes back to the pocket it came from:
- The host fee comes back to your wallet, because it was paid in cash.
- The 15%, when it comes back, returns in the same mix it was paid in: the Onflow Credit part as Onflow Credit, the rest to your wallet.
- When Onflow keeps the 15%, the Onflow Credit that paid it stays spent.
If you released a host's fee early, that money has left Onflow and does not come back; early release only ever releases cash. See Release a payout early.
A poll bought before these rules keeps the rules it was bought under: a channel that does not run is refunded in full.