Usage-Based Billing
A pricing model where customers are charged for what they consume — API calls, GB of storage, minutes of compute, messages sent — instead of (or on top of) a flat subscription.
Modern usage billing is event-driven: the app emits meter events ("user X used 1,200 tokens") which roll up nightly into invoice line items. Stripe Meters (2024+) is the canonical 2026 implementation — define a Meter, emit MeterEvent via SDK, attach to a Price → automatic monthly invoicing. Use for AI products, infra products, and any plan where seat-based pricing would over- or under-charge fairly.
Related terms
Payments and billing platform — used by most B2B SaaS startups for subscriptions, invoices, marketplace payouts, and metered billing.
A subscription-billed software product sold to businesses (not consumers), typically multi-tenant, with org-level auth, role-based access, and per-seat or usage-based pricing.
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