// GLOSSARY -- AGENTIC FINANCE
What is Agent Credit System?
A prepaid or credit-based funding model where AI agents draw from a balance of consumption units (credits) rather than making individual payment transactions, enabling predictable spend with real-time burn-rate monitoring.
WHY IT MATTERS
Instead of paying per-transaction (expensive, slow, high overhead), agents draw from a pre-funded credit balance. Credits map to tool invocations, API calls, or compute units. When credits run out, the agent stops.
Credit systems simplify budgeting (fund the balance, set alerts at thresholds) and reduce payment overhead (settle in bulk, not per-call).
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer's budget enforcement can use credits as the unit of account — agents consume credits per tool call, with policies enforcing credit limits and burn-rate alerts.