# Basic usage-based billing

Charge customers based on how much they use your product or service.

Metronome is now part of Stripe. [Learn if Metronome affects you](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/compare-metronome.md)

## 

Usage-based billing is a common pricing model for SaaS businesses that enables you to charge customers based on their usage of your product or service. With Stripe Billing, you can set up and integrate different types of usage-based pricing models with your SaaS product.
[Get started](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/implementation-guide.md)
## Choose Metronome or basic usage-based billing

[Metronome](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/usage-based.md) is Stripe’s primary usage-based billing platform and the recommended starting point for all new integrations. Basic usage-based billing, built on the [Meters API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/billing/meter.md), is a lower-level primitive that remains fully supported for existing integrations.

Unless you’re maintaining an existing Meters integration, use Metronome. This includes:

- Starting a new usage-based billing integration
- Adding usage-based pricing to existing flat-rate subscriptions
- Needing prepaid credits or credit burndown
- Needing enterprise contracts, commits, or ramp schedules
- Needing dimensional or composite pricing
- Needing real-time usage visibility
- Needing high-volume event ingestion at scale

If you already bill customers using Billing Meters, you don’t need to migrate. Basic usage-based billing also offers fuller compatibility with Connect, Checkout, Adaptive Pricing, and Workflows.

[Compare basic usage-based billing and Metronome](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/compare-metronome.md): Understand the differences between basic usage-based billing and Metronome.

[Migrate to Metronome](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/migrate-to-metronome.md): Migrate from Stripe basic usage-based billing to Metronome.

## Basic usage-based billing resources

[Record usage for billing](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/recording-usage.md): Record customer usage data in Stripe to bill your customers the correct amounts.

[Offer billing credits](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/billing-credits.md): Use billing credits for prepaid or promotional usage-based products or services.

[Monitor usage](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based/monitor.md): Set up alerts for when a customer exceeds a usage threshold.

[Usage records (Legacy)](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/usage-based-legacy.md): View the legacy usage records docs.