Tanium Atlas AI credits are the usage metric Tanium uses to charge for Tanium Atlas, an AI feature of Tanium Cloud. Atlas is available in supported regions, is subject to additional fees, and may require the purchase of AI Credits.[1] The rules are in the AI Credits section of the License Usage Terms, retrieved here at the 2026-09-21 version. A knowledge-base FAQ explains them.[1][2] The Cloud Subscription Agreement anticipates the model. It says some AI features may be available only on a limited basis or subject to additional fees set in the Schedule.[4] Catalog: AI features in Tanium Cloud may be limited or carry additional fees.
Editions
There is one consumption model with two sources of credits.
- Free Credits. Starting 2026-08-03, each Tanium Cloud customer environment gets a set number of AI Credits per calendar month at no extra charge. The amount is set in a Schedule. It is based on annual spend on Tanium software and may rise if the customer buys more software.[1]
- Purchased credits. The FAQ names two purchasable options. AI Credits Tanium Cloud is 10,000 AI Credits per month. AI Credit Booster Tanium Cloud is described as “a premium booster pack” per month, without a published size. Both are pro-rated for partial months, are additional to the Free Credits, and can be stacked.[2]
According to the FAQ, customers were told their Free Credit allocation in August 2026. Additional credits went on sale from September 2026. Customers kept unlimited access to Atlas during a transition period.[2]
Metrics
The AI Credit is consumed at a blended rate of 10,000 AI tokens per Credit, as reported by Tanium’s third-party AI providers.[2] The License Usage Terms say the rate of use depends on many factors, including task complexity and the size of the customer’s environment.[1] The Atlas User Guide lists what consumes credits:[3]
- chat conversations, for every prompt a user enters
- background agent runs, charged to the user who created the agent
- supporting operations: coordinating multi-step tasks, generating memory from a conversation, and loading panel content
Calls from external MCP clients through the Tanium Atlas MCP Server are logged with the credits each call consumed. Non-Atlas tools and polling calls consume none.[3] AI operations in Tanium Classic solutions, such as Tanium Ask, are excluded from Atlas credit usage.[3] Catalog: One AI Credit equals a blended 10,000 AI tokens.
Counting / floors
Monthly reset, no rollover. Free and purchased credits both reset at the start of each calendar month and do not roll over.[1] The Atlas usage page shows a Next Reset date and confirms that unused credits do not carry over.[3] Catalog: Free AI Credits reset monthly and expire by 2027-06-30.
Non-refundable. AI Credits are non-cancellable and non-refundable.[1] Catalog: Purchased AI Credits are non-cancellable, non-refundable and do not roll over.
Expiry. Free and purchased credits expire at the earlier of the end of the customer’s Subscription Term or 2027-06-30.[1] The FAQ says the current model remains in effect through 2027-06-30.[2]
Enforcement and grace band. An administrator can enforce the environment’s monthly allocation. When enforced, new AI processing is blocked once the allocation is reached. When enforcement is disabled, each environment has a 10 percent grace band above its monthly allocation. Tanium does not block automatically and reviews usage beyond the grace band case by case.[3] Administrators can also set monthly caps for users or user groups. A user who reaches the cap is blocked from AI operations until the monthly reset or until the cap is raised. Where a user belongs to several groups, the highest group cap applies.[3] Catalog: With enforcement off, a 10 percent grace band applies above the monthly AI Credit allocation.
Tracking. The AI Credit Usage page in Atlas settings shows allocation and consumption for the environment, broken down by user or group. Each user’s My Usage page shows their own consumption.[3] The License Usage Terms point customers to this dashboard to track credit use.[1]
Worked example
The figures below are hypothetical, because Tanium publishes neither the Free Credit amounts nor prices. Say a customer’s Schedule gives its single Tanium Cloud instance 20,000 Free Credits a month, and the customer buys one AI Credits Tanium Cloud pack of 10,000 a month on 15 March. For March the purchased pack is pro-rated from the purchase date.[2] From April the monthly allocation is 30,000 credits, because purchased credits are in addition to the Free Credits.[1] If enforcement is disabled, consumption can reach about 33,000 credits (the 10 percent grace band) before Tanium reviews it. Credits left on 30 April lapse on 1 May.[3][1] At the blended rate, 30,000 credits correspond to about 300 million AI tokens.[2]
Auditing consumption
The Audit page in Atlas lists conversations with the number of messages and the credits each consumed. Administrators can use it to investigate a conversation that consumed more than expected. From the user breakdown on the AI Credit Usage page, an administrator can open the Audit page filtered to one user’s conversations.[3] Usage thresholds can trigger activity notifications and emails, both for an individual user and for the whole environment.[3]
Virtualization & partitioning
Credits are not tied to endpoints or hardware. They are tied to the Tanium Cloud instance. Free and purchased credits are specific to each instance and cannot be shared, reallocated or transferred between instances. When buying credits, the customer chooses how to split them across instances.[1][2] A customer with separate production and test instances therefore has to plan each instance’s monthly consumption separately. Catalog: AI Credits cannot be shared between Tanium Cloud instances.
Cloud / BYOL
The License Usage Terms describe Atlas and AI Credits as part of Tanium Cloud in supported regions. They do not provide an on-premises equivalent.[1] The Cloud Subscription Agreement’s general terms on AI features apply: some features may be limited or carry additional fees under the Schedule.[4]
Programs
The Free Credit allowance is the only program-like element. It scales with annual spend on Tanium software rather than with endpoint count alone.[1] The FAQ recommends lowering background agent frequency, the most common driver of high usage. It also recommends using role-based access controls to limit which users can use Atlas.[2]
Out of scope
- Prices of purchased credits and the size of the Booster pack, which Tanium does not publish.
- The formula that converts annual spend into Free Credits, which Tanium does not publish.
- The AI terms and data handling described on Tanium’s AI pages, which concern data protection rather than licence quantity.