Unlock the power of usage-based pricing
Usage-based pricing directly links revenue to customer value—transforming how companies develop products, engage with customers, and make strategic decisions.
The framework
A new way to launch & scale your product
Usage-based models require pricing to be at the forefront of product development. Companies need a new way to operationalize pricing models.
Usage-based pricing creates a virtuous cycle where product, pricing, and go-to-market must reinforce each other. They work in concert to drive product adoption, improve customer satisfaction, and unlock greater revenue potential.
The Problem
Usage-based pricing is powerful but hard to get right
More pricing levers, more complexity
Usage-based pricing introduces new dimensions that better align pricing with customer value. However, this makes implementing and managing pricing more complex than subscription or seat-based models.
Pricing on usage creates spend uncertainty
Shifting from fixed charges to variable costs means customers need a clear connection between usage and spend, so they can estimate and manage their costs.
Every team is a Customer Success team
Usage-based pricing shifts the entire company’s focus to product usage and value. Every team must leverage this data to drive adoption and increase revenue.
Launching pricing is hard—updating it is harder
Revenue is now sensitive to product improvements, leading to more frequent pricing updates. However, implementing these changes across both new and existing customers is a significant operational challenge.
The Solution
Adopting usage-based pricing
Launch products with pricing that aligns with value
Every company wants to move fast by delivering more value through new features. In usage-based models, pricing needs to stay in sync with product value.
Refine pricing metrics
Your pricing metrics must adapt to reflect value as usage patterns change and market dynamics evolve.
Segment pricing by customer value
Allow customers to choose the best pricing options for their specific use case. Tailor pricing to meet diverse needs across various factors, such as volume, location, feature set, and more.
Align pricing with GTM motions
Expand beyond packaging and offer commercial models that match the purchasing preferences of each customer segment.
Offer targeted incentives
Encourage adoption and longer commitments by introducing incentives such as commit-based discounts or free credits for new products.
Launch your optimal pricing with a full set of ready-to-use pricing tools. Metronome is the only usage-based billing platform that scales with you, from pay-as-you-go plans to complex enterprise deals.
Flexible pricing metrics
Decouple pricing from metering so you can model and update your pricing metrics without altering your data pipeline.
Dimensional pricing structure
Differentiate pricing across segments and use cases. Apply unique pricing and discounts on any dimension.
Full support from PLG to SLG
Leverage a highly flexible data model to offer standard pricing plans for product-led growth and allow sales to win high-value customers with fully configurable contracts.
Tailored promotions
Easily configure trials, discounts, free credits, and more. Link incentives to specific products, promoting adoption without impacting revenue.
Connect billing to your product experience
In usage-based pricing, billing is a core feature of your product. Customers expect a simple, transparent buying experience. They need to trust their bills, understand them clearly, and manage spend with confidence.
Real-time visibility
Give customers real-time access to detailed billing information and make invoices as intuitive as your product.
Full spend control
Offer customizable spend controls to help customers prevent unexpected charges and stay within their budget.
Clear cost breakdowns
Offer customers full transparency into their spend by providing a detailed view of all charges.
Automated purchase experience
Grant customers access to your product quickly and reduce friction with a self-serve buying process.
Transform opaque monthly charges into a transparent billing experience with robust APIs and alerting. Help customers visualize, understand, and manage their spend.
Real-time billing dashboards
Bring billing into your product and give customers insight into their usage and spend.
Configurable spend controls
Send instant reminders and trigger automated actions based on usage, spend, or balance thresholds.
Flexible billing presentation
Filter and group real-time costs by any dimension, allowing customers to dive deep into their usage and cost data.
Integrated buying experience
Use our end-to-end APIs to streamline key workflows both in your product and across your business systems.
Act on usage and revenue data, across every team
Customer usage and spend data serve as the most direct form of customer feedback. Every team should realign their success metrics around consumption and take action based on it.
Product
Assess the financial impact of each feature and prioritize those that drive the most value and engagement.
Sales &Â Marketing
Ensure customers fully realize product value by tracking consumption in addition to bookings.
Engineering
Prevent usage from eroding profitability by monitoring and maintaining control over margins.
Finance
Improve revenue predictability by tracking variable revenue in real time.
Unlock smarter, faster strategic decisions with real-time, granular billing data. Automatically flow data to your warehouse and sync it with business systems.
Product
Slice and dice granular usage and spend data across custom dimensions. Uncover value-driving features, spot customer journey bottlenecks, and forecast revenue potential for new features.
Sales &Â Marketing
Sync billing data directly to your CRM. Identify upsell opportunities or churn risks with real-time alerts triggered by product usage and credit consumption.
Engineering
Enable real-time revenue tracking at the feature level. Correlate revenue with COGS to conduct margin analysis and improve profitability with dynamic resource allocation.
Finance
Streamline revenue recognition and accelerate month-end close with real-time invoicing data integrated with your ERP. Build predictive models to improve forecasting, segmented by any cohort or dimension.
Iterate pricing to keep up with your products and customers
Usage-based revenue requires you to regularly assess whether the current pricing still offers a fair exchange for the product's value. However, not all changes are equal—each adjustment must be carefully orchestrated across Product, Sales, and Finance with the correct scale and timing.
Phased pricing rollouts
Gradually introduce pricing changes by customer cohort and refine based on customer feedback. Build in sufficient time for customers to adapt to new pricing.
Immediate updates at scale
Launch products with new pricing to all or a subset of customers, ensuring the right customers have access to the right features and are billed accurately.
Individual customer adjustments
Offer customized terms like flexible payment schedules or special discounts throughout the customer lifecycle to promote long-term commitments.
Centrally manage standard pricing while retaining the power to customize pricing on a per-customer basis. Apply pricing changes quickly across any subset of your customer base.
Roll out pricing with control
Ensure smooth pricing rollouts and manage customer expectations with scheduled pricing changes by cohort. Orchestrate updates across your customer lifecycle workflows, from provisioning to revenue recognition.
Deploy pricing changes with accuracy
Make centralized pricing updates and configure how customers inherit changes. Ensure custom discounting is preserved at the individual customer level.
Manage per-customer pricing with precision
Change any part of a customer's contract at any time. Mid-cycle changes will be reflected in one consolidated invoice.
Unpack Pricing is a deep-dive podcast that deconstructs the complex world of SaaS pricing strategies. Hosted by Scott Woody, the show features in-depth conversations with executives, pricing experts, and tech operators who are turning pricing into a key driver for revenue growth.
