A bounty was a monetary reward given when someone was captured or killed for a client. One who fulfilled bounties for a living was known as a bounty hunter. Many bounty hunters worked for crime lords such as Jabba Desilijic Tiure and Tyber Zann.

The word was used informally to refer to the payment for a service, particularly in the case of finding a missing person. Often, bounties were more profitable when they required physical risk to complete. Bounty hunting was a fundamental part of many cultures, such as that of the Rodians and the Gand findsmen.

Bounties were sometimes categorized into local bounties, system bounties, sector bounties and regional bounties. Submission of a valid B23-1-14 permit enabled a bounty hunter to collect the maximum profit.

Depending on the jurisdiction, a person without a permit could earn a bounty, as was the norm in Lamaredd.

The Imperial bounty system of the Galactic Civil War era allowed two types of bounties to be posted; public and private, the latter making the poster anonymous, though it could be accessed by someone carrying a bounty hunting license.

During the Imperial Era, Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates were issued to licensed bounty hunters, and were presumably required for hunters of the era to be hired legally. Many «hunters», however, worked for criminal elements, such as the Hutt clans, and it is reasonable to assume that they ignored such attempts at regulation.