Prepaid balance for AI agents: wallets compared
Prepaid balances and wallets for AI agents compared: AgentCash, looot, AgentCard and credit tools, by how you fund them and what an agent can buy.
The looot team · , updated · 6 min read
On this page
A prepaid balance for AI agents is a wallet you fund once, which the agent draws down call by call to pay for many different APIs. The agent sees a price before each call, spends from the balance, and stops when it runs out. You do not hand it a card or a key per vendor, and several of these wallets work as an MCP server.
The products differ in how you fund the wallet and what the agent can buy. This post compares AgentCash, looot, AgentCard and a few credit-based tools, with facts read from their own pages on 2026-10-13. looot publishes this post, so discount its entry.
What is a prepaid balance for agents, and why use one?
A prepaid balance is money you add up front, which the agent draws down call by call. The point is a hard ceiling. An agent with a card can spend without limit, and an agent with a key per vendor can run up four separate bills. An agent with a balance can lose at most what you put in.
It also removes sign-ups. The service behind the balance holds the vendor accounts, so the agent calls one MCP server and the vendors are the service's problem.
How do the options compare?
| Option | How you fund it | What the agent buys | Source (read 2026-10-13) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AgentCash | A USDC balance; the page offers up to $25 at onboarding | Paid APIs from a marketplace: enrichment, social, email, image, travel | agentcash.dev, read 2026-10-13 |
| looot | Card through Stripe, $5 minimum top-up | Data endpoints from onboarded providers: email, company, people, search, scraping | skill file |
| AgentCard | USDC on Base, Apple Pay or Google Pay | Purchases at ordinary web checkouts with a virtual card | agentcard.sh |
| Lusha | Credits on a plan, one balance for app, API and MCP | Contact data from Lusha | lusha.com/pricing |
The first three solve different problems. Only two of them are about data calls.
AgentCash
AgentCash is a CLI and agent skill that lets AI tools discover and pay for APIs, with the line "one balance, every API". Payment is by micropayments in USDC, which its page calls a digital dollar, and the services come from a marketplace listed on x402scan and mppscan. Its featured services cover enrichment, social, email, image and video, and travel.
It is the closest in idea to looot, and its range is wider in some categories. It lists travel search and image generation, which looot's data catalog does not carry. The pages we read did not give prices, fees or MCP details, and the home page counters showed zero. We cannot tell you what it costs. Funding in USDC also suits crypto-native teams more than a company with a card on file.
looot
looot is an MCP server at https://api.looot.ai/mcp with OAuth sign-in in the browser. You add a minimum of $5 (skill file) through a Stripe link, and the agent calls endpoints from one catalog. A call reserves its quoted cost, settles the real cost and refunds the difference. A refused call, such as bad input or no balance, charges nothing.
The prices are in the live catalog:
The limits: it sells data lookups only, so it cannot book travel or pay at a checkout. There is no free trial credit. And scheduled runs are not available yet.
AgentCard
AgentCard solves a different problem. It lets agents pay at real web checkouts with a virtual Visa card that behaves like debit against a funded balance. Its page says a human approves each purchase with Face ID. It is the right tool when the agent has to buy something on a shop's site.
It does not sell data calls. Its issuing product costs $5,000 a month on the AgentCard page, read 2026-10-13, which is a business integration, not a personal top-up.
Credit tools with one balance
Lusha's pricing page says one balance covers its workspace, extension, API and MCP. That is one balance for one vendor's data. Hunter works the same way with credits shared across its finder, verifier and domain search. If one vendor holds everything you need, a plan with credits is simpler than a gateway.
How do I choose?
The agent needs data lookups from several vendors
Use a gateway with a prepaid balance. Compare the per-call prices first, and set a cost cap on every run. RapidAPI alternatives for AI agents sorts the gateway against marketplaces and x402 options.
The agent needs to buy things at checkouts
Use a card product such as AgentCard. A data balance cannot pay a shop.
You are comfortable with stablecoins and want a wide marketplace
Look at AgentCash. Read the fees on its docs first, since we could not.
All your data comes from one vendor
Use that vendor's credits. A gateway adds a layer you do not need.
Try it: fund and check
Prompt for your agent
Check the balance before spending
What this post does not cover
We did not test AgentCash, AgentCard or Lusha. We read their pages on 2026-10-13, and some pages did not state prices or fees, which we mark as not found. Check each page before you fund anything.
The pricing page explains how a quote, a hold and a refund work.
Last checked 2026-10-13 against the pages cited and the looot skill file. Author: the looot team.
Questions
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Try it with the agent you already use
Start your workspace, top up, and paste one prompt into your agent.
