---
title: "Terminology"
description: "A plain-English glossary of Edge terms: products, network concepts, billing, and governance — every word you'll meet in the docs and Control, defined."
url: https://edge.network/academy/terminology/
---

# Terminology

[Back to Academy](https://edge.network/academy)
Getting Started
8 min read

# Terminology

Every platform has its own vocabulary. Here's Edge's, in plain English — the words
you'll meet in the docs, in Control, and around the network, each defined in a
sentence or two.

## Products

### CDN

Edge's content delivery network. Caches and serves your sites and assets from nodes close to your users, with zero egress fees. [More →](https://edge.network/cdn)

### Compute

Virtual machines on the Edge network. Deploy apps, containers, and full VMs to locations near your users. [More →](https://edge.network/compute)

### DNS

Authoritative DNS hosting on a global anycast network. Free, fast, and API-first. [More →](https://edge.network/dns)

### Storage

S3-compatible object storage with zero egress. Files live in buckets and can be served directly or through the CDN. [More →](https://edge.network/storage)

### Shield

Privacy-first bot protection without puzzles. Scores each visitor's humanity and verifies legitimate AI agents rather than blocking everything non-human. [More →](https://edge.network/shield)

### Assist

Conversational agents for your website. Answers questions using your own content, embedded with one line of code. [More →](https://edge.network/assist)

### Control

The Edge customer console at /account — where you create and manage deployments, billing, and account settings. [More →](https://edge.network/console)

### Agent API

The machine-facing interface that lets AI agents discover, deploy, and manage Edge resources autonomously — the "agentic cloud". [More →](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-the-agentic-cloud)

## The network

### Node

Any machine contributing capacity to the network — from a Raspberry Pi in an attic to rack hardware in a data centre — running the Edge node software. [More →](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-an-edge-node)

### Relay

An infrastructure node that routes traffic and coordinates work across the nodes around it, connecting them to the wider network.

### PoP

Point of presence — a network location that serves traffic. Edge's PoPs include both strategic data-centre sites and contributed devices. [More →](https://edge.network/network)

### Explorer

The public view of the network: every online node on a live map, with per-node detail. [More →](https://xe.network)

### Reputation

A node's earned trust score, built through uptime and successful jobs. Higher reputation brings more and better work.

### Stake

A refundable security deposit that unlocks trust-sensitive work for a node, or voting rights in governance. Returned when you leave; forfeited only for abuse.

## Billing

### Prepaid balance

Money you've added to your account up front. Usage draws down from it before anything touches your card.

### Pay as you go

Usage-based billing with a card on file — you pay for what you use, topped up automatically.

### Monthly cap

An optional hard limit on monthly spend. When the cap is reached, paid usage stops rather than billing past it.

### Free tier

The allowance included with every product before any payment is needed — e.g. 500k CDN requests or 250 Assist questions a month.

### Zero egress

Edge doesn't charge for data transfer out, on any product, at any scale. Bills are based on what you use or store, never on bytes moved. [More →](https://edge.network/academy/zero-egress-explained)

## Governance

### Governance

How network changes are decided: proposals raised, debated, and voted on in the open by governance stakeholders. [More →](https://governance.edge.network)

### DAO

The organisation that stewards the network — founders, core developers, and advisors — holding a collective veto over governance proposals.

## Now put the words to work

Create a free account and see the terminology in its natural habitat — no card
required.

[Start Free](https://edge.network/console) [Quick Start Guide](https://edge.network/academy/quick-start)

## Related articles

[What is an Edge Network? 6 min](https://edge.network/academy/what-is-an-edge-network) [Account Setup 5 min](https://edge.network/academy/account-setup) [Console Quick Start 5 min](https://edge.network/academy/dashboard-quick-start)