The rapid adoption of AI is pushing SaaS pricing to continuously evolve. Traditional subscription models are under pressure, especially as companies race to monetize AI features where costs and value no longer cleanly align to flat-rate subscriptions. Hybrid pricing, a combination of subscriptions with usage- or outcome-based components, has quickly emerged as the new norm. 

Within this shift, one pricing model in particular is gaining traction: seat-based credit pools. Companies like Miro and Airtable are rethinking how they bundle access and usage together to better reflect customer value. 

In this post, we’ll explore what seat-based credit pools are, why they’re becoming popular, key considerations when implementing, and how Metronome helps companies implement this model.

What are seat-based credit pools?

Seat-based credit pools combine the predictability of per-seat subscriptions with the flexibility of usage-based pricing. Each seat purchased on a subscription plan contributes a set amount of credits into a shared pool. All users on the account can then draw from that pool, consuming credits as they use premium or AI-powered features. 

For example:

• A team buys 10 seats at $10 each.
• Each seat contributes 100 AI credits per month. 
• The team now has access to a shared pool of 1,000 credits (10 seats * 100 AI credits) that can be consumed across all users. 

This pooled structure contrasts with individual seat credits, where each user has their own allocation of credits that only they can use, and with usage add-ons, where credits are purchased separately from seats. 

Why it’s a common pricing model 

Companies experimenting with AI features are finding traction with this model because it: 

• Encourages adoption across teams: By pooling usage, every user gets the opportunity to test out new AI-powered features without worrying about whether their individual credit bucket has run dry. This model lowers the barrier for initial user adoption and also lets power users and early evangelists dive in faster and help get their teammates onboard. This makes it especially appealing for collaborative tools like Miro, Figma, or Notion.
  
• Is operationally simpler to roll out: Unlike individual seat credits, seat-based credit pools can avoid the complexity of managing allocations, caps, or alerts at an individual seat level, making it easier for companies to introduce usage-based elements to their pricing model without major overhead. While best-in-class companies often do implement these allocations, caps, or alerts at the individual level for a better customer experience, it isn’t required to get started with this pricing model. They also sidestep the added revenue recognition complexity that comes with tracking and attributing credits to individual seats. This makes it easier for product, finance, and billing operations teams to introduce usage-based elements without major overhead.
  
• Aligns with customer value: Customers are used to paying per seat when engaging with traditional SaaS companies, and pooled usage provides predictable spend as compared to pure usage-based pricing. Unlike individual seat credits, where spend is tied to each individual’s allocation, seat-based credit pools ensure teams can budget against a known total while still flexing with actual consumption.
  
• Supports pricing agility: Pricing continues to evolve and no one has “cracked the code” on AI pricing. Companies need the freedom to test, learn, and iterate. Pooled credits make it easier to experiment: you can adjust how many credits are granted per seat, change overage rules, or shift how credits are bundled into plans, all without having to rewrite brittle contract structures or rework billing logic. 

Seat-based credit pools in practice

We’ve shared the why of seat-based credit pools, but what does this look like for companies who have adopted this model for their AI features? Here are a few examples.

Miro: Seat-based credit pools for team-wide AI usage

Each paid seat gets a set number of AI credits that roll up into a shared pool that all users can access. This lets teams experiment with Miro’s AI features without worrying about individual allocations. The pooled model drives adoption across large, collaborative teams.

For organizations with heavy Miro AI adoption, Miro also offers add-ons if teams go over their seat-based credit pool allocation, giving customers a clear path to scale usage without disruption.

Airtable: From add-ons to seat-based credit pools

Airtable originally sold AI usage as credit packs that customers could purchase as an add-on. They’ve since shifted to pooled AI credits bundled directly into core subscriptions, making the model easier to understand and more predictable for budgeting. 

The total credit pool is determined by the number of seats in the subscription, but all users have unlimited access to the pool and aren’t restricted to a per-seat maximum. (For example, a 10-person team x 20,000 credits per seat = 200,000 monthly credits, and one user could theoretically use anywhere from all 200,000 credits or none at all.) 

This move to seat-based credit pools as part of the core subscription lowered the barrier for teams to adopt AI broadly. 

Making it work in practice

Key considerations when implementing

When rolling out seat-based credit pools, there are several design decisions and potential pitfalls to account for. These aren’t necessarily cons of the model itself, but areas where thoughtful implementation is required to deliver a great customer experience and protect revenue.

• Risk of imbalanced usage: A few power users can burn through the pool quickly, leaving others without access. Consider safeguards like per-user maximums, alerts, or tiered-access rules.
• Forecasting challenges: It can be harder for finance teams to predict pooled usage if it isn’t tightly tied to seats. Building forecasting models that account for variability is important for planning.
• Revenue leakage: Without the right tooling—such as fine-grained usage tracking and entitlement enforcement—companies risk under-monetizing usage. Make sure systems can attribute and enforce consumption rules accurately.
• Customer visibility: Without transparent dashboards, customers may be surprised by how quickly pooled credits are consumed. Providing clear usage reporting helps build trust and reduces billing disputes.
• Overage policy choices: Once the pooled credits are fully consumed, you’ll need a clear policy for what happens next. Options include setting a hard cutoff to control costs, allowing customers to purchase more credits, or allowing continued usage with in-arrears billing. Each choice has trade-offs for customer experience, predictability, and revenue capture, so it’s a critical design decision.

Why alerting matters with seat-based credit pools

Real-time alerting is essential infrastructure when it comes to seat-based credit pools. Without proactive notifications, companies risk surprise bills for customers, undetected overages, and missed revenue opportunities. Alerts act as a safety net that keeps both the customer experience and the business model healthy. Because pricing models are only as good as the infrastructure that supports them, seat-based credit models can create headaches for both companies and customers without the right guardrails in place. 

This is where real-time spend alerts are critical. Alerts ensure that:

• Customers aren’t blindsided by unexpected bills.
• Power users don’t silently drain the pool for everyone else.
• Your internal finance and product teams get early signals on usage trends and potential upsell opportunities.

Metronome recently launched the ability to create spend alerts by group key, which allow companies to configure alerting on budgets for specific groups like teams, seats, or projects within a larger account. This allows you to set maximums for seat-based credit pools. For instance, you can trigger alerts for when X user spends more than Y amount of credits, allowing power users to spend more than “their share” without consuming the entire credit pool. 

This provides fine-grained visibility and control into how credits are being used, helping prevent revenue leakage and improving the customer experience. Learn more in our changelog. 

Getting started with seat-based credit pools in Metronome

Metronome is built to help companies navigate this hybrid pricing shift with confidence.

• Out-of-the-box support for hybrid models: Metronome is the only platform that supports seat-based credit pools and other hybrid pricing structures ready to go from day one, so you can launch without building brittle billing workarounds.
  
• Transparent, real-time dashboards: Give your customers visibility into usage and spend, reducing surprise bills and support overhead.
  
• Cross-GTM alignment: Metronome bridges the gap between PLG and SLG billing motions. Whether you’re selling via self-serve or enterprise contracts, you can deliver a consistent end-user experience and offer seat-based credit pools across all plans.
  
• Alerting and safeguards: Features like spend alerts by group key ensure usage-based models don’t create unnecessary revenue risk or churn.

For companies betting on AI features and new forms of usage-based pricing, agility is key. Metronome gives you the tools to experiment, iterate, and evolve without breaking your billing system. As hybrid pricing becomes the norm, seat-based credit pools are emerging as one of the most effective ways to balance predictability with flexibility. They encourage adoption, align with customer value, and give companies room to experiment in a rapidly changing market. However, like any pricing model, seat-based credit pools come with operational challenges, especially around visibility, alerts, and revenue recognition.

That’s where Metronome comes in: giving you the infrastructure to launch, manage, and evolve your pricing without compromise. Metronome is the first platform to support AI credit models out of the box, with the launch of seat-based credit pools last month. You can learn more in our hybrid business models launch guide or reach out to our team. 

While seat-based credit pools is a popular model, it’s part of a broader family of seat-based credit models. Depending on how customers are using and realizing value from your product, it may make sense to use seat-based credit pools, individual seat credits, or a combination of both. We’re continuing to invest in building first-class support for hybrid pricing models, and will have more to share soon!