Capacity is measured in completed, valuable work rather than in raw prompts or model tokens.
Why it matters when the plan changes
Usage-based pricing for anything involving models tends to charge for consumption the customer cannot predict or control. Pricing committed capacity in units of finished work moves the measure to something a buyer can plan against and something a supplier is accountable for delivering, which is a different commercial relationship. It replaces the older mechanism of a rate card, a list of standard prices for defined units of work, with a single annual commitment drawn down over the term much as a framework agreement is drawn down as work arises.
The tension is that capacity has to expire to be capacity. Unused credits rolling forward would turn a commitment into a deposit and remove the reason for the customer to plan their use. Expiry is commercially necessary and is the part buyers dislike, which is why the rule has to be visible rather than discovered, stated at the start of the agreement rather than raised at renewal.
In practice
A customer commits to a capacity level for the year and draws on it as decisions arise: two team analyses in the first quarter, a set of match reports in the second. When use grows they add a pack rather than reopening the agreement. Redeeming credits consumes the balance; it is not a second sale.
Evidence
A rate card sets out standard prices for defined units of work, which is the mechanism a capacity commitment replaces.
Rate card, Wikipedia (2026)A framework agreement establishes terms under which defined work is subsequently drawn down.
Framework agreement, Wikipedia (2026)
What it cannot tell you
Intelligence Credits measure how much defined work has been committed and drawn down, not whether that work was useful, timely or acted upon. A full quarter's use of credits says nothing about the quality of the reports produced or the decisions they informed, and the unit is silent on effort, complexity or outcome.
How Atlas reads it
Intelligence Credits are commercial tokens for defined completed work and never AI model tokens. Three rules make the model work: commit annually, add packs when use grows, and unused capacity expires at term end. The approved commercial source defines eligible work and weights, and weights are not inferred from a product description or promised as future modules.
Questions
Defined completed work such as Match Reports, team analyses, decision reviews or forecasts. The approved commercial source defines which work is eligible and what each unit weighs, much as a rate card, defined on Wikipedia (2026), sets standard prices for defined units of work rather than for time or effort.
No, and the distinction is deliberate. They are a commercial unit for completed work, closer to a framework agreement, documented on Wikipedia (2026), which sets terms for drawing down defined work over time, than to billing for model consumption that shifts whenever the underlying system changes.
Because capacity that rolls forward is a deposit rather than a commitment, and it removes any reason to plan use across the year. Expiry is what makes the commercial model work, and it is the rule most worth stating clearly at the start rather than in a renewal conversation.
They add a pack, which follows real use rather than triggering a renegotiation of the whole agreement. That is one of the three rules the model rests on, alongside annual commitment and expiry, and it is what lets an agreement grow without a new sales cycle.
No. Redemption consumes a balance the customer has already committed to and is not recognised as another sale. Signed sales, recognised revenue, invoices and cash receipts are four different measures, and finance owns how each one of them is classified.