How does Lava handle high-frequency agent billing?

Billing for AI Agents

AI agents can generate thousands — even tens of thousands — of API calls per day. Traditional payment methods like credit cards are not designed for this volume of microtransactions. Lava's wallet-based system is purpose-built for it.

The problem with card-based billing for agents

• Transaction fees eat margins. Card networks charge $0.20–0.30+ per transaction. An agent making 20,000 calls/day at $0.001 each would cost more in fees than the actual AI usage.
• Rate limits and fraud flags. High-frequency small charges trigger fraud detection systems and can get your merchant account flagged.
• Settlement delays. Card transactions take 2–3 business days to settle, making real-time balance tracking impossible.

How Lava solves this

Lava's prepaid wallet system processes AI usage as internal ledger transactions, not individual card charges:

• One payment in, unlimited usage out. Users load their wallet once; Lava tracks every micro-deduction internally with zero per-transaction fees.
• Real-time balance updates. Each API call immediately deducts from the wallet — no batching or delays.
• Sub-cent precision. Lava's ledger supports high-precision decimals, so even fractions of a cent are tracked accurately.
• No rate limits on billing. Whether an agent makes 100 or 100,000 calls, the billing system handles it identically.

Built for agentic workflows

Agents that chain multiple LLM calls, use tool calling, or orchestrate multi-step workflows generate complex usage patterns. Lava meters each individual provider call, aggregates the costs, and deducts from the user's balance — all transparently and in real time.