Scalable content delivery network request handling mechanism with usage-based billing

An apparatus comprising:

• a server managed by a service provider on behalf of a plurality of content providers for delivering content associated with the content providers, the server having has circuitry forming one or more processors coupled to memory holding non-transitory computer-program instructions to be executed by the one or more processors to cause the server to:
• receive a request for particular content from a client device over a network interface;
• identify a content control that indicates how to handle the request from within a set of content controls stored at the server;
• wherein the content control contains at least one reference to particular control information to be used in applying the content control, wherein the particular control information comprises code;
• send a request to a remote host for the particular control information;
• receive the particular control information from the remote host;
• apply the content control to determine how to handle the request, said application of the content control comprising executing the code;
• determine a processing cost associated with executing the code;
• log the processing cost so as to enable the service provider to charge the content provider associated with the particular content for the execution of the code.