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Meters convert raw events into billable quantities. They filter events and apply aggregation functions (Count, Sum, Max, Last) to calculate usage per customer.
Meter creation interface showing event name, aggregation type, and filtering options

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API Resources

Create Meter

Create meters programmatically via API.

List Meters

Retrieve all meters in your account.

Get Meter

Fetch details for a specific meter by ID.

Update Meter

Change a meter’s name, description, or measurement unit.

Archive Meter

Archive a meter to stop tracking usage.

Unarchive Meter

Restore an archived meter to resume tracking.

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Creating a Meter

1

Basic Information

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string
required
A descriptive name for the meter (e.g., “API Requests”, “Token Usage”).
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string
required
The exact event name to match (case-sensitive). Examples: api.call, image.generated.
2

Aggregation

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string
required
Choose how events are aggregated:
  • Count: Total number of events (API calls, uploads)
  • Sum: Sum of numeric values (tokens, bytes)
  • Max: Highest value in the period (peak users)
  • Last: Most recent value
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string
The metadata key to aggregate (required for Sum, Max, and Last). Examples: tokens, bytes, duration_ms.
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string
required
The unit label for invoices and reports. Examples: calls, tokens, GB, hours.
3

Filtering (Optional)

Event filtering interface with AND/OR logic and comparison operators
Add conditions to filter which events are counted:
  • AND logic: All conditions must match
  • OR logic: Any condition can match
Available comparators: equals, not equals, greater than, greater than or equals, less than, less than or equals, contains, does not contain.Enable filtering, choose your logic, then add conditions with a property key, comparator, and value.
4

Create

Review your configuration and click Create Meter.

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Editing a Meter

To edit a meter in the dashboard, open the meter’s menu and select Edit. You can change the name, description, and measurement unit. These fields don’t affect billing. The event name, aggregation, and filter are read-only after creation. To change how a meter bills, archive it and create a new meter. Through the API, Update Meter accepts name, description, and measurement_unit only, and returns 422 for any other field. Send "description": null to remove the description.

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Viewing Analytics

Meter analytics dashboard showing usage overview, events, and customer data
Your meter dashboard displays:
  • Overview: Total usage and usage trends over time
  • Events: Individual events received and their metadata
  • Customers: Per-customer usage totals and charges

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Billing in Credits Instead of Currency

By default, meters charge customers per-unit in dollars (or your configured currency). You can instead configure a meter to deduct from a customer’s credit balance, so usage consumes credits rather than generating a monetary charge.
Credit-based deduction requires a Credit Entitlement attached to the same product. Create the credit entitlement first, then link it to the meter.

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When to Use Credit-Based Deduction

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Configuring a Meter to Deduct Credits

1

Create a Credit Entitlement

First, create a credit entitlement in Products → Credits. Define the unit (e.g., “API Calls”, “Tokens”), precision, and lifecycle settings (expiry, rollover, overage).See the Credit-Based Billing guide for detailed instructions.
2

Create or Edit a Usage-Based Product

Go to your usage-based product and open the Meter configuration section.
3

Add a Meter

Click the + button to attach a meter. Configure the event name, aggregation type, and measurement unit as usual.
4

Enable 'Bill Usage in Credits'

Toggle Bill usage in Credits on the meter configuration to reveal credit settings:
Meter configuration with Bill usage in Credits toggle enabled

Toggle 'Bill usage in Credits' to switch from currency-based to credit-based deduction.

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string
required
Select which credit entitlement this meter deducts from.
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number
required
The number of usage units required to deduct 1 credit. For example:
  • 1 = each meter event deducts 1 credit
  • 100 = 100 meter events deduct 1 credit
  • 1000 = 1,000 API calls consume 1 credit
5

Free Threshold and Credits

The Free Threshold applies to meters billed in money, not to meters billed in credits. When a meter bills in credits, every unit counts toward credit deduction.Example: With meter-units-per-credit of 1, a customer who makes 2,500 API calls has 2,500 credits deducted.

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How Credit Deduction Works

Once configured, the deduction pipeline runs automatically:
  1. Events arrive — Your application sends usage events via the Event Ingestion API.
  2. Meter aggregates — Events are aggregated per your meter configuration (Count, Sum, Max, Last).
  3. Background worker processes — Every minute, a worker fetches new events since the last checkpoint.
  4. Credits are deducted — Aggregated usage is converted to credits using the meter_units_per_credit rate and deducted using FIFO ordering (earliest-expiring grants consumed first).
  5. Overage tracked — If the balance hits zero, further usage is recorded as overage and handled according to the configured behavior (forgiven at reset, billed at next invoice, or carried forward as deficit). Dodo Payments doesn’t block usage when the balance runs out. To stop access at zero, check the balance in your application.
Credit deduction runs asynchronously (every ~1 minute). There may be a brief delay between event ingestion and balance deduction. Design your application to handle this delay and don’t rely on real-time balance checks for access control on individual requests.

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Multiple Meters, One Credit Pool

You can link multiple meters on the same product to the same credit entitlement. All meters deduct from one shared balance. Example: An AI platform with two meters:
  • text.generation — 1 credit per 1,000 tokens
  • image.generation — 10 credits per image
Both deduct from the same “AI Credits” pool. The customer sees a single unified balance in their portal.
Use different meter_units_per_credit rates across meters to express relative costs. Expensive operations (image generation) cost fewer meter units per credit than cheap ones (text completion).

List Customer Ledger

View the full credit deduction history for a customer.

Get Customer Balance

Check a customer’s current credit balance via API.

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Troubleshooting

  • Event name must match exactly (case-sensitive)
  • Check that meter filters aren’t excluding events
  • Verify customer IDs exist in your account
  • Temporarily disable filters to test
  • Verify the Over Property matches the metadata key exactly
  • Use numbers, not strings: tokens: 150 not tokens: "150"
  • Include required properties in all events
  • Match case exactly
  • Use correct operators for the data type
  • Ensure events include the filtered properties
  • Check the Events tab to count actual events received
  • Verify the aggregation type (Count vs Sum)
  • Ensure values are numeric for Sum and Max

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Next Steps

Send Events

Start sending usage events from your application to your meters.

View Blueprints

Use ready-made meter configurations for common use cases.

Pricing as Code

Define meters and usage-based prices with Terraform.
Last modified on October 29, 2026