Usage-Based Billing
Charge for exactly what your customers use
BillingServ adds metered, usage-based billing on top of your existing subscriptions. Define a meter with an included allowance and a per-unit price, send usage events through the API, and let overage roll onto the next invoice automatically. Flat monthly fee, no percentage of the revenue you bill.
API-first · Allowances & per-unit overage · Flat monthly pricing, no revenue cut
Why usage-based billing is hard to get right
Charging for consumption sounds simple until you build it. Metering, allowances, overage and invoicing all have to line up, every cycle, for every customer. BillingServ takes on the hard parts.
Metering is fiddly
Counting events reliably, in order, without dropping or double-counting them, is harder than it looks once retries and outages are in play.
Allowance and overage maths
A free allowance, then a per-unit price beyond it, then the right total on the invoice. Get the arithmetic wrong and you over- or under-charge.
Percentage-of-revenue pricing
Many usage-billing tools take a cut of everything you bill. The more you grow, the more it costs, on top of payment-gateway fees.
Disconnected from invoicing
When metering lives in one system and invoicing in another, someone ends up reconciling spreadsheets by hand at the end of every cycle.
Customers can't see usage
If customers can't check what they've used, every large invoice becomes a support ticket and a dispute waiting to happen.
Bolting usage onto plans
Most billing tools are built for flat subscriptions. Adding metered overage to a recurring plan often means a second system and custom glue code.
Define a meter, set an allowance, price the overage
Add one or more meters to any package. Each meter has a name, a unit label, an included allowance and a per-unit price. Usage within the allowance is free; usage beyond it is billed at your rate.
Unit prices are high precision, so you can charge fractions of a penny per API call or per megabyte without rounding away your margin. Mark a meter to bill in arrears and BillingServ tracks the overage as it accrues, then adds it to the order's next invoice. Because meters live on the package, the same setup applies to every customer on that plan.
- API calls
- GB transferred
- Compute hours
- Seats
- Messages sent
- Minutes
- Builds
- Storage
- Included allowance
- Per-unit price
- Unit label
- Bill in arrears
Set it once on the package. Every order on that plan inherits the same allowance and per-unit pricing.
From usage event to invoice line, automatically
Four steps from instrumenting your product to billing the overage. You report usage; BillingServ handles allowances, totals and invoicing.
Add meters to a package
Create each meter with its allowance and per-unit price. Bundle it with a recurring plan or run it on its own.
Send usage events
Report usage to the API as it happens, with the order, the meter name and a quantity. Attach your own metadata to each event for your records.
Track allowance in real time
BillingServ deducts usage from the allowance and works out the billable overage and unbilled amount as events arrive.
Overage hits the invoice
Billable usage is added to the order's next invoice automatically, with a clear breakdown of allowance versus billable units.
One API call to record usage
Report a usage event with the order, meter name and quantity. The response tells you how much was free, how much is billable and the current unbilled amount, so you can show usage in your own product too.
- customer_id
- order_id
- name
- qty
- payload
What usage-based billing does for your business
Whether you run a SaaS product, an API or a cloud service, metered billing is built to deliver clear business outcomes.
Charge for what's used
Align price with value. Customers pay for the calls, gigabytes or hours they actually consume, which lowers the barrier to start and grows revenue as they do.
Keep all of your revenue
A flat monthly fee, not a percentage of what you bill. Your costs stay predictable while your usage revenue scales.
Allowance and overage in one place
Every event is recorded against the order and counted against its allowance. BillingServ works out what's free and what's billable for you.
Real-time usage and alerts
See used, remaining and unbilled amounts as they change. Low-allowance alerts flag when free usage runs low, before the invoice does.
Usage on the invoice, automatically
No end-of-month reconciliation. Billable overage is added to the next invoice with a line-by-line breakdown.
Works with your subscriptions
Run a fixed plan plus metered overage on the same order. Hybrid billing without a second system to maintain.
Who bills on usage with BillingServ
Usage-based billing fits any product where value scales with consumption, and any team that already bills recurring plans and wants to add metered charges.
SaaS & API products
Charge per API call, request or event on top of a base plan. Meter usage from your app with a single API call.
Cloud & infrastructure resellers
Bill bandwidth, storage or compute beyond an included allowance, with provisioning and invoicing in one platform.
Hosting & VPN with add-ons
Add metered extras such as overage bandwidth or extra mailboxes to a hosting or VPN plan, billed alongside the recurring fee.
AI & compute products
Meter tokens, generations, jobs or GPU minutes with high-precision per-unit pricing, so fractional costs still add up correctly.
Communications platforms
Bill per message, minute or email sent. Send a usage event as each one goes out and let overage settle on the invoice.
A percentage of revenue, or a flat fee
There are two ways to pay for usage-based billing. Many platforms take a cut of everything you bill. BillingServ charges a flat monthly fee. Here's how they differ.
Costs grow with your revenue
You pay more the more you bill.
- A percentage taken from every charge
- Cost stacks on top of payment-gateway fees
- Harder to forecast as you scale
- Growth is effectively penalised
Flat monthly fee, no revenue cut
Usage billing is included in the plan.
- Flat price by active client count
- No percentage of the revenue you bill
- Metering, invoicing and portal in one platform
- Predictable cost as your usage revenue grows
Usage-based billing is included
Metered billing comes with every paid plan. You pay a flat monthly fee by active client count, and there's a 14-day free trial with no card required.
Starter
For small teams adding metered charges.
Up to 250 clients
- Usage-based billing included
- Metered packages and allowances
- Full white-label
- REST API access
- No percentage of revenue
Professional
For growing SaaS and cloud products.
Up to 1,000 clients
- Everything in Starter
- More active clients
- Hybrid subscription + usage billing
- Customer portal usage visibility
Business
For scale, with unlimited clients.
Unlimited clients
- Everything in Professional
- Unlimited active clients
- High-precision unit pricing
- Multi-gateway support
All prices exclude VAT, charged at 20% in the UK where applicable. Annual billing is available at a discount.
Built for accurate metering
The usage engine is designed for correctness, precision and integration. Here's what the stack delivers.
Multiple meters per plan
Put several meters on one package, each with its own allowance and per-unit price, and bill them together on the same order.
High-precision pricing
Unit prices carry many decimal places, so you can price fractions of a penny per unit and still total correctly across millions of events.
Event metadata
Attach your own properties to each usage event, so the data you need for auditing or your own reporting travels with it.
Bill in arrears
Overage accrues through the cycle and is added to the next invoice, with a breakdown of allowance versus billable units.
Real-time status API
Query used, remaining allowance and current unbilled amount per meter at any time, and surface it in your own product.
Allowance alerts
Threshold warnings flag when free usage drops low, so customers and your team see it coming before the invoice lands.
Paying a percentage to bill on usage? Move to a flat fee
If a metered-billing tool is taking a cut of everything you charge, BillingServ is built to make the move straightforward. You get metering, allowances, overage and invoicing in one white-label platform on a predictable monthly fee. Tell us how you meter today and we'll help you map it across.
Frequently asked questions
Metered billing, allowances, overage and combining usage with subscriptions.
What is usage-based billing?
Usage-based billing charges customers for what they actually consume, such as API calls, gigabytes transferred, compute hours or messages sent. With BillingServ you define a meter on a package, give it an included allowance and a per-unit price, then report usage through the API. Anything within the allowance is free; anything over it is billed at your per-unit rate.
How does BillingServ meter usage?
You send usage events to the API as they happen, each tagged with the order, the meter name and a quantity. BillingServ records every event against the order, tracks it against the included allowance, and calculates the billable overage in real time. You can attach your own metadata to each event for your records.
Can I combine usage-based billing with subscriptions?
Yes. Usage-based billing sits on top of your existing recurring packages, so you can charge a fixed subscription fee plus metered overage on the same order. A plan can include an allowance in its recurring price and bill only the usage beyond it.
Do you take a percentage of my revenue?
No. BillingServ is a flat monthly subscription based on your active client count. Usage-based billing is included in the paid plans, and we never take a percentage of the revenue you bill through it.
What can I meter?
Anything you can count and report as a quantity, such as API calls, gigabytes transferred, compute hours, seats, messages or minutes. You can put more than one meter on a package, each with its own allowance and per-unit price, and unit prices are high precision so fractional per-unit costs still total correctly.
When is overage charged?
Usage is billed in arrears. As usage comes in, BillingServ tracks the billable quantity beyond the allowance and adds it to the order's next invoice automatically, with a breakdown of what was within the allowance and what was billable.
Can my customers see their usage?
Yes. Usage is visible in the customer portal, showing what has been used, what allowance remains and the current unbilled amount. Low-allowance alerts flag when free usage drops below a threshold, so there are fewer surprises on the invoice.
Start charging for what your customers use
Add metered, usage-based billing to your plans on a platform that handles metering, allowances, overage and invoicing in one place. Free trial available, and if you're moving off a percentage-based tool we'll help you map your meters across.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.