> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.atum.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Payouts

> Send tokenized currency to contractors, gig workers, or any recipient — on whatever rail and in whatever token they hold.

## Overview

Your platform decides who gets paid, how much, and when. Getting money to recipients across different payment rails — especially internationally — traditionally means FX intermediaries, correspondent banks, and recipients who may not have access to traditional banking at all. Atum handles delivery so you can focus on the payout logic.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Marketplaces and platforms" icon="shop">
    Paying out gig workers, creators, or sellers after a job, sale, or approval event.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Payroll processors" icon="money-bill-wave">
    Disbursing to employees or contractors across different payment rails.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Remittance providers" icon="globe">
    Sending funds to recipients where traditional rails are slow, expensive, or inaccessible.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Government and aid organizations" icon="hand-holding-dollar">
    Disbursing funds to recipients who may not hold accounts on a single rail.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Problem space

Atum solves:

* SWIFT delays and correspondent bank fees on international transfers
* No delivery path for unbanked or underbanked recipients
* Rail mismatch between sender and recipient tokens or chains

## How it works

When a payment event fires — job complete, invoice approved, batch ready — your payout service submits a payment request to Atum. Atum routes it to a settlement provider that delivers on the recipient's rail, then returns a settlement receipt.

## Shared responsibility

Atum handles delivery — you stay in control of payout decisions and timing.

| You                                                    | Atum                                      |
| ------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------- |
| Decide when to pay and how much                        | Finds a settlement provider for the route |
| Specify recipient, source token, and destination token | Moves funds to the recipient's rail       |
| Store the receipt and handle retries                   | Returns a settlement receipt              |

## Try it

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Try it (CLI)" icon="terminal" href="/get-started/start-building/using-the-cli">
    Send a payment from your terminal in minutes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integrate (SDK)" icon="code" href="/get-started/start-building/build-with-the-sdk">
    Add payments to your backend service
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Next steps

* [Merchant acceptance](/get-started/use-cases/merchant-acceptance) — accept any tokenized currency from buyers
* [Agentic payouts](/get-started/use-cases/agentic-payouts) — let an AI agent make the payment decision autonomously