Usage-Based Billing

Usage-based billing charges customers for what they consume—API calls, storage, AI tokens, or any metric you define. Customers pay for what they use. You can add a fixed base fee, or set it to zero.

Best for: APIs, AI services, infrastructure platforms, and any product where value scales with usage.

How It Works

Send Usage Events

Your application sends events when billable actions occur.

{
  "events": [
    {
      "event_id": "evt_123",
      "customer_id": "cus_abc",
      "event_name": "api.call",
      "metadata": { "endpoint": "/v1/users" }
    }
  ]
}

Meters Aggregate Usage

Meters aggregate events into billable quantities using Count, Sum, Max, or Last aggregation.

Automatic Billing

Set pricing per unit and optional free thresholds. Customers are billed automatically each cycle.

Core Concepts

Events

Events represent usage actions in your application. Each event includes:

Event Name: Type of usage (e.g., api.call)
Customer ID: Who used it
Metadata: Additional properties for aggregation and filtering

Meters

Meters aggregate events into billable quantities:

Count: Total number of events (API calls, uploads)
Sum: Sum of numeric values (total bytes, tokens)
Max: Highest value in the period (peak users, max storage)
Last: Most recent value

Meter creation interface showing event name, aggregation type, and filtering options

Products with Usage Pricing

Set pricing per unit and optional free thresholds:

Product pricing configuration for usage-based billing

Example: 2,500 calls minus 1,000 free = 1,500 chargeable calls × $0.02 = $30.00

Credit-Based Deduction

Instead of charging per-unit in dollars, you can configure meters to deduct from a customer’s credit balance. Credits refresh each billing cycle and apply before any overage charges.

Quick Start

Create a Meter

Go to Meters in the dashboard and click Create Meter.

Enter an event name (e.g., api.call)
Choose an aggregation type (Count, Sum, Max, or Last)
Add optional filters to exclude certain events

Add Meter to a Product

Link the meter to a product and set pricing:

Adding a meter to a product with pricing configuration

Go to Products and select or create a product
Select Usage Based Billing as the pricing type
Choose your meter
Set the price per unit and optional free threshold

Send Events

await fetch('https://test.dodopayments.com/events/ingest', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DODO_PAYMENTS_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    events: [{
      event_id: "unique_event_id",
      customer_id: "cus_abc123",
      event_name: "api.call",
      metadata: { endpoint: "/v1/users" }
    }]
  })
});

Monitor Usage

Meter dashboard showing usage trends over time

View your meter’s dashboard to see events and aggregated usage. Customers are billed automatically each billing cycle.

Use Cases

APIs and Infrastructure

Track API calls, compute hours, bandwidth, or storage. Example: $0.001 per call after 10,000 free calls.

AI Usage Tracking

Track tokens, image generations, or processing time. Example: $0.04 per standard image, $0.08 per HD image.

Data and Analytics

Bill by data processed, queries run, or records analyzed. Example: $5 per GB after 10 GB free.

Communication

Count messages, minutes, or data transferred. Example: $0.01 per SMS sent.

Next Steps

Event Ingestion

Learn how to structure and send usage events from your application.

Meters Guide

Master meter configuration, aggregation types, and event filtering.

Complete Tutorial

Build a complete AI image generator with usage-based billing from scratch.

Integration Guide

Comprehensive guide to implementing usage-based billing in your application.

Getting Started

Features

Integrate

Merchant of Record

Miscellaneous

How It Works