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Finance automation
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Money management
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Payments
Finance automation
Get started
Payments
Finance automation
Platforms and marketplaces
Money management
Overview
Billing
    Overview
    About the Billing APIs
    Subscriptions
    Invoicing
    Usage-based billing
      Choose a usage-based billing setup
        Use products and prices
        Use rate cards
      Record usage for billing
      Offer billing credits
      Monitor usage
      Usage-based pricing models
    Connect and Billing
    Tax and Billing
    Quotes
    Revenue recovery
    Automations
    Scripts
    Revenue recognition
    Customer management
    Entitlements
    Test your integration
Tax
Reporting
Data
Startup incorporation
HomeFinance automationBillingUsage-based billing

Choose a usage-based billing setup

Charge customers based on their usage of your product or service.

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Usage-based billing enables you to charge customers based on their usage of your product or service. This guide helps you understand which Stripe integration pattern best fits your business needs.

Choose your integration

You can set up usage-based billing with two different patterns:

  • Products and prices: Use Products and Prices to create a meter, set up pricing and billing, and send meter events to record customer usage.
  • Rate cards Private preview: Use rate cards if you only offer usage-based pricing and don’t offer discounts or trials. Otherwise, use products and prices. Create a rate card, subscribe your customer, record usage, and monitor servicing events.

Private preview

Rate cards are currently in private preview and could change in shape and integration path before they’re generally available to all Stripe users. Contact here to request access.

Pricing model support

The following table describes which usage-based and recurring pricing models each integration path supports.

Pricing modelPRODUCTS AND PRICESRATE CARDS Private preview
Pay as you go
Credit burndown
Flat recurring fee
Per-seat fee
Discounts and promo codes
Trials

Billing functionality support

The following table describes which use cases each integration path supports.

Use casePRODUCTS AND PRICESRATE CARDS Private preview
Set up multiple items per subscriptionUp to 20 Up to 1,000
Roll out prices to all subscribers without code
Set up different pricing versions by user cohort
Set a billing cadence distinct from a service period
Automate changes to subscriptions over time
Set up usage alerts
Configure an invoice finalization grace period

Stripe products support

The following table describes which products and features each integration path supports.

Stripe product featurePRODUCTS AND PRICESRATE CARDS Private preview
Automatic tax support
Manual tax support
Collect payment with Checkout
Customer portal Limited 1
Invoicing
Automations
Smart retries

1 Users can download invoices, update payment methods and customer information. Users can’t cancel a subscription or upgrade and downgrade subscriptions.

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