Token Accounting

Token accounting is the practice of tracking balances and movements of usage tokens, credits, or prepaid units in a double-entry ledger—the same rigor used for fiat money, applied to metered AI or API consumption. Each mint, grant, burn, or drawdown posts as balanced debits and credits against accounts that represent wallets, commits, and revenue.

Why it Matters

LLM and tool usage is sold in tokens and credits, but finance still needs auditable books. Spreadsheet counters and gateway meters drift under retries, partial failures, and multi-tenant sharing. A ledger-backed token model keeps remaining commit, consumed units, and revenue recognition consistent.

For agentic systems, token accounting connects model spend to agent wallets and prepaid commits. When an agent pays for inference or tools, the economic event lands once in the system of record, whether settlement was x402, card, or internal credit—so product metering and financial reporting stay aligned.