Use Case

Bill by the token,
not the month.

AI products don't generate value on a monthly schedule. They generate it per completion, per API call, per agent action. AI Payware provides native metered billing so you can charge for exactly what your users consume — with real-time tracking and flexible billing intervals.

Why subscriptions don't fit AI

Flat-rate subscriptions force AI products into an awkward compromise: price too low and your power users cost you money; price too high and casual users churn. Usage-based billing aligns your revenue with the value you deliver.

Per-Token Billing

Charge by input tokens, output tokens, or both. Attach model and context metadata to every charge for full granularity.

Real-Time Metering

Usage is tracked in real time — not batched at end of day. Your users see their consumption as it happens.

Flexible Intervals

Bill daily, weekly, monthly, or on custom thresholds. Settle when it makes sense for your product economics.

How metered billing works

Every time your AI product performs a billable action, send a usage event. AI Payware tracks it, aggregates it, and settles it according to your billing schedule.

metered-billing.js
import { Payware } from 'aipayware';
const pw = new Payware('pk_live_...');

// Record a usage event after each completion await pw.usage.record({
  customer: 'cust_abc123',
  metric: 'tokens',
  quantity: 8420,
  unit_price: 0.00003, // $0.03 per 1K tokens
  meta: {
    model: 'gpt-5',
    session: 'sess_xyz',
    feature: 'code-review'
  }
});

// Check current billing cycle usage const summary = await pw.usage.summary('cust_abc123');
// { total: 142,500 tokens, amount_due: "$4.28", period: "Jun 1–30" }

Billing models you can implement

Pure Pay-Per-Use

No base fee. Customers pay only for what they consume. Ideal for API products and developer tools.

Base + Overage

A monthly base includes a quota. Usage beyond the quota is billed at per-unit rates. The hybrid model most AI SaaS products converge on.

Tiered / Volume

Price per unit decreases as usage increases. Reward your power users and incentivize higher consumption.

Revenue share on every metered charge

AI Payware's Studio tier shares back 10% of processing revenue on every charge your application generates — including metered charges. At Scale volumes ($100K+/month), that increases to 15%. The more your users consume, the more you earn from the economics you're creating.

FAQ

Can I combine usage-based billing with subscriptions?

Yes. Many AI products use a "base + overage" model: a monthly subscription includes a usage quota, and consumption beyond the quota is billed per-unit. AI Payware supports this hybrid model natively.

How granular can my billing metrics be?

As granular as you need. You can meter by tokens, completions, API calls, agent actions, compute minutes, storage bytes, or any custom metric. Each usage event can carry arbitrary metadata for your analytics and customer-facing invoices.

What happens if a customer disputes a usage charge?

Every usage event is logged with full metadata, timestamp, and session context. When a dispute arises, you can provide granular evidence of exactly what was consumed, when, and by which session — making chargebacks easier to defend.

Can customers set their own spending limits?

Yes. You can expose spend caps to your end users, allowing them to set a maximum monthly charge. When the cap is reached, your application can choose to throttle, pause, or upgrade the customer — whatever fits your product model.

Related: AI Agent Payments · SaaS Payment Infrastructure · Usage-Based Billing vs Subscriptions

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