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Set up tiered pricing

Set up tiered pricing for your subscriptions.

Prices can represent tiers, allowing the unit cost to change with quantity or usage. Use tiers if you need non-linear pricing when quantity or usage changes. To create usage-based pricing models, you can combine tiered pricing with flat rates.

For example, imagine a business called Typographic that wants to offer lower rates for customers who use more fonts per month. The following tiered pricing models show two different ways to adjust pricing as usage increases: volume-based pricing and graduated pricing. To demonstrate these approaches to tiered pricing, we’ll use the following tiers:

Number of fontsPrice per tier
First tier1-57 USD
Second tier6-106.5 USD
Third tier11+6 USD

Volume-based pricing

With volume-based pricing, the subscription item bills at the tier corresponding to the amount of usage at the end of the period. The entire quantity (or usage) is multiplied by the unit cost of the tier. Because the tier price applies to the entire quantity (or usage), the total might decrease when calculating the final cost.

For example, a customer with 5 fonts is charged 35 USD (5 × 7 USD) in November. If they use 6 fonts in December, then Typographic bills all fonts at the 6-10 rate. For December, Typographic charges 39 USD (6 × 6.5 USD).

Quantity and usage at end of the periodUnit costTotal monthly cost
17 USD7 USD
57 USD35 USD
66.5 USD39 USD
206 USD120 USD
256 USD150 USD
  1. Go to the Product catalog.
  2. Click + Create product.
  3. Enter a Name for the product.
  4. (Optional) Add a Description. The description appears at checkout, on the customer portal, and in quotes.

Next, create the monthly price for the product:

  1. Click More pricing options.
  2. Select Recurring.
  3. For Choose your pricing model, select Tiered pricing and Volume.
  4. Under Price, create three tiers:
    First unitLast unitPer unitFlat rate
    First tier157 USD0 USD
    Second tier6106.5 USD0 USD
    Third tier11∞6 USD0 USD
  5. For Billing period, select Monthly.
  6. Click Add product to save the product and price. You can only edit the product and price until you create a subscription with them.

Graduated pricing

Graduated pricing charges for the usage in each tier instead of applying a single price for overall usage. The quantity is multiplied by the amount for each tier and the totals for each tier are summed together.

For example, 5 fonts result in the same charge as volume-based pricing: 35 USD total at 7 USD per font. This changes as usage exceeds the first tier. Typographic charges a customer with more than 5 fonts 7 USD per font for the first 5 fonts, then 6.5 USD for fonts 6 through 10, and 6 USD for any additional fonts. They charge a customer with 6 fonts 41.5 USD, 35 USD for the first 5 fonts and 6.5 USD for the 6th font.

Quantity and usage at end of the periodTotal for graduated tiered pricing
17 USD
535 USD
641.5 USD
20127.5 USD
25157.5 USD
  1. Go to the Product catalog.
  2. Click + Create product.
  3. Enter a Name for the product.
  4. (Optional) Add a Description. The description appears at checkout, on the customer portal, and in quotes.

Next, create the monthly price for the product:

  1. Click More pricing options.
  2. Select Recurring.
  3. For Choose your pricing model, select Tiered pricing and Graduated.
  4. Under Price, create three tiers:
    First unitLast unitPer unitFlat rate
    First tier157 USD0 USD
    Second tier6106.5 USD0 USD
    Third tier11∞6 USD0 USD
  5. For the Billing period, select Monthly.
  6. Click Add product to save the product and price. You can only edit the product and price until you create a subscription with them.

Add a flat rate

You can specify a flat rate (flat_amount) to add to the invoice. This works for both volume and graduated pricing. For example, you can have a flat fee that increases when your customer exceeds certain usage thresholds:

TierAmount (unit cost)Flat rate
1-5 (up_to=5)5 USD (unit_amount=500)10 USD (flat_amount=1000)
6-10 (up_to=10)4 USD (unit_amount=400)20 USD (flat_amount=2000)
10-15 (up_to=15)3 USD (unit_amount=300)30 USD (flat_amount=3000)
15-20 (up_to=20)2 USD (unit_amount=200)40 USD (flat_amount=4000)
20+ (up_to=inf)1 USD (unit_amount=100)50 USD (flat_amount=5000)

Volume-based pricing flat rate example

If quantity is 12 and tiers_mode=volume, the total amount billed is:

12 × 3 USD + 30 USD = 66 USD

Graduated pricing flat rate example

If quantity is 12 and tiers_mode=graduated, the total amount billed is:

(5 × 5 USD + 10 USD) + (5 × 4 USD + 20 USD) + (2 × 3 USD + 30 USD) = 111 USD

A tier can have either a unit_amount or a flat_amount, or both, but it must have at least one of the two. If quantity is 0, the total amount is 10 USD regardless of the tiered pricing model used. Stripe always bills the first flat rate tier when quantity=0. To bill 0 when there’s no usage, set up an up_to=1 tier with an unit_amount equal to the flat rate and omit the flat_amount.