A micropayment is a very small amount of money you pay, usually on a computer or a phone, for a small piece of something — one article, one song, one extra page on a website. The idea is pay-per-look, instead of a big monthly fee. An American writer on computers and information, Ted Nelson, is credited with the word. Though actually, it has always been hard to do with a normal bank card, because the card company takes a fee that can be bigger than the tiny payment. So many sites ask you to put money in a wallet, use points, or pay a subscription instead. You will meet the word in tech and business English, not at the night market. People also stretch it and call any small in-app charge a micropayment, even when it is not that tiny.