---
title: "What is episode?"
description: "An episode is one environment's complete life, fork, execute, terminate, and it is the unit a quote and a spend cap are written against."
url: "https://www.promigence.ai/glossary/episode"
site: "Promigence"
---

# What is episode?

An episode is one environment's complete life, fork, execute, terminate, and it is the unit a quote and a spend cap are written against.

The term comes from reinforcement learning, and the shape is the same in agentic evaluation: an environment is created, an agent works in it, the result is scored, the environment is destroyed.

Promigence meters by the second, like the rest of the market, but it prices a run by the episode before you start it. `promigence run quote` multiplies the number of episodes by what each can cost at most, and `--cap` refuses a run that would go past your ceiling. So you get a per-second bill with a number you agreed to first.

## Related
- https://www.promigence.ai/glossary/validity-report
- https://www.promigence.ai/glossary/environment-runtime