Usage-based billing for Developer tools

Usage-based billing for APIs and developer tools: meter it, tier it, invoice it with the plan

How API and developer tool companies meter requests, compute and storage in Bunny, price them with tiers and volume breaks, combine them with plan fees and committed usage, and invoice the lot on one subscription.

Get a demo Start free

What makes usage-based billing different for developer tools and API companies

API-first and developer-focused products that start self-serve on a card and end up negotiating enterprise contracts with committed usage.

  • Many meters, one invoice

    Requests, compute minutes, storage, bandwidth, seats. A developer product often meters four or five things at once, each with its own rate card, and the customer expects one line-itemised invoice.

  • Free tier to enterprise on the same meter

    The same usage that is free up to a limit is billed at list on a Pro plan and at a negotiated rate on an enterprise contract. The meter is constant; the rating rules are not.

  • Committed usage with true-up or overage

    Enterprise buyers commit to annual usage for a lower rate. Whether excess is billed monthly as overage or trued up at period end is a contract term the billing system has to honour.

  • Usage has to reach billing reliably

    The product emits events at high volume. Billing needs an aggregated, idempotent way to receive usage and a clear record of what was rated.

How Bunny handles usage-based billing for developer tools and API companies

  1. 01

    Multiple usage charges per subscription

    Each metered unit is its own usage charge with its own pricing model on the plan. A subscription can carry any number of them alongside recurring seat or platform fees, all on one invoice.

    Usage-based billing in Bunny
  2. 02

    Flat, tiered, volume and banded rating

    Per-request pricing that steps down with volume, block-priced storage, flat per-seat — each charge is rated with the model that fits, from the catalog.

    Tiered pricing
  3. 03

    Usage reporting through the GraphQL API

    Report aggregated usage against a subscription's feature through Bunny's GraphQL API or the Node and Ruby SDKs; Bunny rates it at period end and itemises it on the invoice.

    Usage metering
  4. 04

    Free allowances and overage

    A free or included allowance is a recurring charge with a usage charge above it, so free, Pro and enterprise tiers share one meter and differ only in the rating.

    Overage explained
  5. 05

    Committed usage on enterprise quotes

    Enterprise contracts quote a recurring commitment with a negotiated overage rate, or a minimum commitment with true-up, and the accepted quote becomes the subscription that bills it.

    Minimum commitments
  6. 06

    Usage visible to the customer

    Customers see consumption and invoices in the Bunny portal or in the embedded React components inside your product.

    Self-service portal

Keep the meter in the product, the rating in billing

The design decision that pays off for developer tools is where the pricing logic lives. Products that compute charges in application code and push totals to a payments tool find that every pricing change is a deploy, and that enterprise deals with negotiated rates need a code path of their own.

The alternative is for the product to report what happened — requests, minutes, gigabytes — and for billing to decide what it costs. In Bunny the product reports usage against a subscription’s feature; the catalog and the quote decide the rating. A free tier, a Pro plan and a negotiated enterprise contract are then the same integration with different price lists. Hybrid pricing covers how the recurring and usage components combine.

Usage-based billing for other industries

The same workflow, written up for other kinds of B2B SaaS. Browse all industries.

Free trial

The RevOps expert your team never had.

Bunny's AI agent knows your entire book of business and acts on it — flagging at-risk renewals, chasing overdue invoices, and closing upgrades automatically.
  • Type "send upgrade quotes to all starter plan accounts" — done in seconds
  • At-risk renewals flagged, chased, and closed — before you know there's a problem
  • Overdue invoices collected automatically, without an awkward conversation
Try free for 30 days

No credit card required. Cancel anytime.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do we send API usage to Bunny?
Aggregate usage in your product and report it against the customer's subscription feature through Bunny's GraphQL API or the Node and Ruby SDKs. Bunny rates the reported usage against the pricing on the subscription at the end of each billing period.
Can one subscription meter requests, storage and compute separately?
Yes. Each is a separate usage charge on the plan with its own pricing model, and all of them are itemised on the same invoice alongside any recurring charges.
How is a free tier modelled?
As an included allowance — a recurring charge at zero — with a usage charge for consumption above it. Paid tiers use the same meter with different allowances and rates.
Can enterprise customers commit to annual usage for a lower rate?
Yes. The quote carries a recurring commitment and a usage charge at the negotiated overage rate, or a minimum commitment with true-up, and the accepted quote becomes the subscription.