A pay-per-use or metered-use computer uses directives from an operating system or other software component to determine whether to meter or not. Because such directives may not be trustworthy, a metering system may determine a state of the computer to verify that the metering state complies with a policy. If the metering system determines that the power state is not in keeping with the metering state, the metering system may invoke a sanction, such as restarting metering or placing some or all of the computer in a standby power mode.