diff --git a/gateway/src/ocr/extract.ts b/gateway/src/ocr/extract.ts
index 071df89..0874daa 100644
--- a/gateway/src/ocr/extract.ts
+++ b/gateway/src/ocr/extract.ts
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
  * One escrow per page against a model-scoped `ocr.page.extract.<model>.v1`
  * supplier (config.ocrCapabilityId). Lifecycle mirrors the one-shot chat
  * path, all inside the per-key mutex: parse → select supplier → preflight →
- * submitOcr (escrow → supplier call → receipt verify) → resolve Submitted
- * ref → Accept (awaited) → record usage → wallet-health → respond.
+ * per-candidate live busy pre-check → submitOcr (escrow → supplier call →
+ * receipt verify) → resolve Submitted ref → Accept (awaited) → record usage
+ * → wallet-health → respond.
  *
  * Response (200):
  *   {
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ import {
   ALLOWED_OCR_OUTPUT_FORMATS,
   MAX_OCR_IMAGE_B64_CHARS,
 } from "@marketplace/shared/tx";
-import type { ProgressEvent } from "@marketplace/buyer/sdk";
+import { SupplierError, type ProgressEvent } from "@marketplace/buyer/sdk";
 import type { GatewayDeps } from "../deps.js";
 import type { GatewayStore } from "../db/store.js";
 import { requireKey } from "../middleware/apiKeyAuth.js";
@@ -59,6 +60,10 @@ const B64_RE = /^[A-Za-z0-9+/]+={0,2}$/;
 const HEX64_RE = /^[0-9a-fA-F]{64}$/;
 const VENUE_RE = /^[a-z0-9-]{1,32}$/;
 
+/** Bound on the live busy pre-check below - cheap enough that a stalled
+ * supplier never meaningfully delays the request. */
+const SUPPLIER_STATUS_CHECK_TIMEOUT_MS = 2_000;
+
 interface ParsedOcrRequest {
   image_b64: string;
   mime: string;
@@ -122,6 +127,35 @@ export function venueAttribution(req: Request): { venue: string; runUserHash: st
   };
 }
 
+/**
+ * Live busy pre-check, run immediately before a candidate's escrow posts.
+ * Mirrors sessions.ts's startChat pre-check: same signal ("working" on the
+ * supplier's own /status), same best-effort posture. Posting an escrow only
+ * to have the supplier reject as busy strands the escrow until reclaim and
+ * burns the tx fee, so this is worth a bounded, cheap HTTP round trip.
+ *
+ * Never a gate: the indexer already filters candidates on advert status, so
+ * a timeout, network error, non-2xx, or malformed body all resolve to "not
+ * busy" (unknown, not blocking) - a briefly-unreachable /status must never
+ * stop the candidate from being attempted.
+ */
+async function isSupplierBusy(
+  endpointUrl: string,
+  fetchFn: typeof globalThis.fetch,
+): Promise<boolean> {
+  try {
+    const res = await fetchFn(`${endpointUrl.replace(/\/+$/, "")}/status`, {
+      signal: AbortSignal.timeout(SUPPLIER_STATUS_CHECK_TIMEOUT_MS),
+    });
+    if (!res.ok) return false;
+    const body = (await res.json()) as unknown;
+    const status = body && typeof body === "object" ? (body as { status?: unknown }).status : undefined;
+    return status === "working";
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
 function recordOcrUsage(
   store: GatewayStore,
   p: {
@@ -238,6 +272,17 @@ async function runOcrOneShot(
     // submitOcr's return value (I2 follow-up).
     let lastErr: unknown;
     for (const cand of candidates) {
+      // Live pre-check, run right here (not once at the top of the request):
+      // skip a candidate that is busy right now instead of paying to find
+      // out. See isSupplierBusy's docstring for the exact signal + posture.
+      if (await isSupplierBusy(cand.endpointUrl, fetchFn)) {
+        lastErr = new SupplierError("supplier_busy", {
+          status: 409,
+          message: "supplier is busy with another job",
+        });
+        continue;
+      }
+
       const onProgress = (ev: unknown): void => {
         const e = ev as ProgressEvent;
         if (e.type === "escrow_posted" && e.escrow_ref) escrowRefStr = e.escrow_ref;
diff --git a/gateway/test/ocr.test.ts b/gateway/test/ocr.test.ts
index ab1dbbe..f696259 100644
--- a/gateway/test/ocr.test.ts
+++ b/gateway/test/ocr.test.ts
@@ -400,3 +400,173 @@ describe("POST /v1/ocr/extract — escrow ref survives a post-escrow SupplierErr
     expect(failedLine[0].escrow_ref).toBe(knownEscrowRef);
   });
 });
+
+// ─── Busy pre-check - never post an escrow to a candidate that is busy ──────
+//
+// runOcrOneShot now checks each candidate's live /status immediately before
+// calling submitOcr for it (mirrors sessions.ts's startChat pre-check):
+// "working" means busy and moves on to the next candidate WITHOUT posting an
+// escrow; anything else (free, unreachable, malformed, slow) is treated as
+// usable. submitOcr is the escrow-posting path in these tests (same
+// monkeypatch pattern as the suites above), so asserting its call count is
+// exactly how "no escrow was posted" is observed.
+
+const OCR_SUPPLIER_A = {
+  ...OCR_SUPPLIER,
+  utxo_ref: `${"aa".repeat(32)}#0`,
+  supplier_pkh: "sA",
+  endpoint_url: "http://sup-a",
+};
+const OCR_SUPPLIER_B = {
+  ...OCR_SUPPLIER,
+  utxo_ref: `${"bb".repeat(32)}#0`,
+  supplier_pkh: "sB",
+  endpoint_url: "http://sup-b",
+};
+
+/** Indexer /suppliers lookup plus a per-endpoint /status responder, on one
+ * fetchFn - everything else falls back to the suite's usual empty array. */
+function makeFetchWithStatus(
+  suppliers: Array<typeof OCR_SUPPLIER>,
+  statusByEndpoint: Record<string, () => Response>,
+): typeof globalThis.fetch {
+  return (async (url: unknown) => {
+    const u = String(url);
+    if (u.includes("/suppliers")) {
+      return new Response(JSON.stringify(suppliers), { status: 200 });
+    }
+    for (const [endpoint, respond] of Object.entries(statusByEndpoint)) {
+      if (u === `${endpoint}/status`) return respond();
+    }
+    return new Response("[]", { status: 200 });
+  }) as unknown as typeof globalThis.fetch;
+}
+
+/** Same successful submitOcr shape as the happy-path suite above, reused
+ * across the busy pre-check tests. */
+function makeSubmitOcrStub() {
+  return vi.fn(async (_opts: { advertRef: { txHash: string; index: number } }) => ({
+    output_format: "markdown",
+    content: "extracted text",
+    usage: { prompt_tokens: 10, completion_tokens: 5, total_tokens: 15 },
+    receipt: {
+      prompt_hash: "1b".repeat(32),
+      response_hash: "2c".repeat(32),
+      model: "chandra-ocr-2",
+      prompt_tokens: 10,
+      completion_tokens: 5,
+      wallclock_ms: Date.now(),
+      supplier_pkh: "s3",
+      escrow_ref: `${"d".repeat(64)}#0`,
+    },
+    receiptSignature: "sig".repeat(20),
+    escrowRef: { txHash: "d".repeat(64), index: 0 },
+  }));
+}
+
+describe("POST /v1/ocr/extract - busy pre-check", () => {
+  it("a busy supplier is never sent an escrow; the route returns the busy response", async () => {
+    const fetchFn = makeFetchWithStatus([OCR_SUPPLIER], {
+      "http://sup": () => new Response(JSON.stringify({ status: "working" }), { status: 200 }),
+    });
+    const deps = makeDeps(fetchFn, { chain: fundedChain });
+    const rawKey = makeKey(deps, 0);
+    const keyRow = deps.store.getKeyByHash(hashApiKey(rawKey))!;
+
+    const ctx = deps.registry.getContext(keyRow);
+    const submitOcr = makeSubmitOcrStub();
+    (ctx.sdk as { submitOcr: unknown }).submitOcr = submitOcr;
+
+    const res = await request(createApp(deps))
+      .post("/v1/ocr/extract")
+      .set("Authorization", `Bearer ${rawKey}`)
+      .send(validBody());
+
+    // The escrow-posting path was never invoked.
+    expect(submitOcr).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    // toGatewayError maps SupplierError("supplier_busy") to 503 overloaded -
+    // the same busy response a post-escrow 409 would have produced.
+    expect(res.status).toBe(503);
+    expect(res.body.error?.code).toBe("overloaded");
+
+    const rows = deps.store.listUsage(keyRow.id, 10);
+    expect(rows).toHaveLength(1);
+    expect(rows[0].status).toBe("failed");
+    expect(rows[0].escrow_ref).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("a free supplier proceeds to post and settle exactly as before", async () => {
+    const fetchFn = makeFetchWithStatus([OCR_SUPPLIER], {
+      "http://sup": () => new Response(JSON.stringify({ status: "free" }), { status: 200 }),
+    });
+    const deps = makeDeps(fetchFn, { chain: fundedChain });
+    const rawKey = makeKey(deps, 0);
+    const keyRow = deps.store.getKeyByHash(hashApiKey(rawKey))!;
+
+    const ctx = deps.registry.getContext(keyRow);
+    const submitOcr = makeSubmitOcrStub();
+    (ctx.sdk as { submitOcr: unknown }).submitOcr = submitOcr;
+
+    const res = await request(createApp(deps))
+      .post("/v1/ocr/extract")
+      .set("Authorization", `Bearer ${rawKey}`)
+      .send(validBody());
+
+    expect(submitOcr).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    expect(res.body.x_vector.receipt_labels).toContain("first-party-brokered");
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to the second candidate when the first is busy, posting exactly one escrow", async () => {
+    const fetchFn = makeFetchWithStatus([OCR_SUPPLIER_A, OCR_SUPPLIER_B], {
+      "http://sup-a": () => new Response(JSON.stringify({ status: "working" }), { status: 200 }),
+      "http://sup-b": () => new Response(JSON.stringify({ status: "free" }), { status: 200 }),
+    });
+    const deps = makeDeps(fetchFn, { chain: fundedChain });
+    const rawKey = makeKey(deps, 0);
+    const keyRow = deps.store.getKeyByHash(hashApiKey(rawKey))!;
+
+    const ctx = deps.registry.getContext(keyRow);
+    const submitOcr = makeSubmitOcrStub();
+    (ctx.sdk as { submitOcr: unknown }).submitOcr = submitOcr;
+
+    const res = await request(createApp(deps))
+      .post("/v1/ocr/extract")
+      .set("Authorization", `Bearer ${rawKey}`)
+      .send(validBody());
+
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+    // Exactly one escrow posted, and it is the second (free) candidate's -
+    // the busy first candidate was skipped, not retried after failing.
+    expect(submitOcr).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(submitOcr.mock.calls[0][0].advertRef).toEqual({ txHash: "bb".repeat(32), index: 0 });
+  });
+
+  it("a status check that errors does not block the attempt", async () => {
+    const fetchFn = makeFetchWithStatus([OCR_SUPPLIER], {
+      "http://sup": () => {
+        // Simulates both a network error and an aborted (timed-out) request -
+        // isSupplierBusy's catch block treats every failure mode the same
+        // way: unknown, not busy, proceed. A real AbortSignal timeout is not
+        // exercised here to keep the suite fast; the outcome is identical.
+        throw new Error("simulated network failure reaching /status");
+      },
+    });
+    const deps = makeDeps(fetchFn, { chain: fundedChain });
+    const rawKey = makeKey(deps, 0);
+    const keyRow = deps.store.getKeyByHash(hashApiKey(rawKey))!;
+
+    const ctx = deps.registry.getContext(keyRow);
+    const submitOcr = makeSubmitOcrStub();
+    (ctx.sdk as { submitOcr: unknown }).submitOcr = submitOcr;
+
+    const res = await request(createApp(deps))
+      .post("/v1/ocr/extract")
+      .set("Authorization", `Bearer ${rawKey}`)
+      .send(validBody());
+
+    // The candidate was still tried despite the failed pre-check.
+    expect(submitOcr).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    expect(res.status).toBe(200);
+  });
+});