Best Usage-Based Billing Software in 2026: 8 Platforms Priced on Events and Billings
Eight metering and billing platforms for AI, API and hybrid SaaS pricing, with two monthly cost scenarios built from published rates.
Short answer: Orb is the best usage-based billing software for most AI and API companies in 2026. It bills raw events with SQL-defined metrics and prints its price: $6 per credit, which works out to 0.60% of billings plus $6 per 200,000 events. Stripe Billing is the cheapest at $80,000 of monthly billings, and Chargebee edges it at $200,000. Pick Metronome for negotiated enterprise contracts, Lago to self-host, and Maxio for a flat fee.
Key facts8 tools compared: Orb, Stripe Billing, Metronome, Chargebee, Lago, Maxio, m3ter, Zenskar
- 8 tools compared: Orb, Stripe Billing, Metronome, Chargebee, Lago, Maxio, m3ter, Zenskar
- Stripe Billing (best for: Teams already on Stripe Payments that bill simple metered usage alongside subscriptions): 0.7% of billing volume pay as you go; annual plans from $620/mo; up to 100M meter events/mo included
- Metronome (best for: Companies with negotiated enterprise contracts, commits and marketplace sales on top of self-serve usage): Startup: 0.8% of billing volume + $0.04 per 1,000 events; Custom plan by quote
- Chargebee (best for: Hybrid SaaS companies mixing seats and usage that want a large event allowance inside the rate): Flow: 0.80% of invoicing volume, or $99/mo + 0.65%; includes 100M usage events/mo
Usage-based billing breaks the first time a product charges by tokens, API calls or compute minutes instead of seats. The billing tool now has to ingest every event, price it, and turn millions of rows into an invoice a customer can check. This page ranks the eight platforms finance teams shortlist for that job and prices the four that publish a rate.
Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 89 subscription billing tools as of October 20, 2026, and 30% of them are free, freemium or open source. Its median cheapest paid plan is $89 a month across the 21 that publish one, which is far below what a metered product pays at real volume.
The angle here is metering. Our best billing software guide ranks subscription platforms by fit, and our Chargebee alternatives page costs the field for a pure subscription business with no events at all.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
A usage-native billing engine priced in credits, with SQL billable metrics, plan versioning and prepaid credits.
Business: $6 per credit (1 credit = $1,000 of billings or 200,000 events); Enterprise custom
AI and API companies that bill raw usage events and want a published, self-serve price.
Stripe's billing layer, with basic usage billing through its Meters API and Metronome for advanced usage.
0.7% of billing volume pay as you go; annual plans from $620/mo; up to 100M meter events/mo included
Teams already on Stripe Payments that bill simple metered usage alongside subscriptions.
A usage billing platform, now a Stripe product, built around rate cards, commits and per-customer contracts.
Startup: 0.8% of billing volume + $0.04 per 1,000 events; Custom plan by quote
Companies with negotiated enterprise contracts, commits and marketplace sales on top of self-serve usage.
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Orb | Business: $6 per credit (1 credit = $1,000 of billings or 200,000 events); Enterprise custom | AI and API companies that bill raw usage events and want a published, self-serve price. |
| Stripe Billing | 0.7% of billing volume pay as you go; annual plans from $620/mo; up to 100M meter events/mo included | Teams already on Stripe Payments that bill simple metered usage alongside subscriptions. |
| Metronome | Startup: 0.8% of billing volume + $0.04 per 1,000 events; Custom plan by quote | Companies with negotiated enterprise contracts, commits and marketplace sales on top of self-serve usage. |
| Chargebee | Flow: 0.80% of invoicing volume, or $99/mo + 0.65%; includes 100M usage events/mo | Hybrid SaaS companies mixing seats and usage that want a large event allowance inside the rate. |
| Lago | Open-source edition free to self-host (AGPL-3.0); Lago Premium priced on request | Engineering-led teams that want to self-host billing or start on open source before buying. |
| Maxio | Grow from $599/mo up to $100K monthly billings; Scale by quote above that | B2B SaaS finance teams that want a flat platform fee instead of a revenue share. |
| m3ter | Custom: core platform fee by size, with add-ons, support and implementation priced separately | Mid-size and large B2B SaaS companies already standardizing on Salesforce. |
| Zenskar | Starter, Standard and Enterprise: custom pricing; no percentage of revenue | Finance-led companies that want billing and revenue recognition without a revenue-share fee. |
Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Nov 2026. 2 of 8 sell by quote only and publish no price; those entries say so rather than estimating. 4 of 8 publish prices for some plans and quote the rest.
Orb
A usage-native billing engine priced in credits, with SQL billable metrics, plan versioning and prepaid credits.
- Pricing
- Business: $6 per credit (1 credit = $1,000 of billings or 200,000 events); Enterprise custom
Best for: AI and API companies that bill raw usage events and want a published, self-serve price.
Pros
- One credit covers $1,000 of billings or 200,000 events, so the billings side of the bill is the lowest published share here.
- SQL-based billable metrics run over raw events, so a team can redefine a meter without rebuilding ingestion.
- New Business accounts get 100 free credits, worth $600 at the list rate.
Cons
- NetSuite sync, revenue recognition reports, Salesforce sync and audit trail are Enterprise only, which has no list price.
- Events are metered too: at 50M events a month, ingestion adds $1,500 to the bill.
Stripe Billing
Stripe's billing layer, with basic usage billing through its Meters API and Metronome for advanced usage.
- Pricing
- 0.7% of billing volume pay as you go; annual plans from $620/mo; up to 100M meter events/mo included
Best for: Teams already on Stripe Payments that bill simple metered usage alongside subscriptions.
Pros
- Pay as you go has no base fee, so it is the lowest total in our smaller scenario.
- Basic metering runs through the Meters API inside Billing pricing, with no per-event fee up to its monthly allowance.
- Annual plans swap the percentage for a fixed fee: $1,500 a month covers up to $250,000 of billing volume.
Cons
- Advanced usage features (multidimensional rates, negotiated contracts) sit in Metronome, a separate product with its own pricing.
- Card processing is extra, at 2.9% + 30 cents per card payment.
Metronome
A usage billing platform, now a Stripe product, built around rate cards, commits and per-customer contracts.
- Pricing
- Startup: 0.8% of billing volume + $0.04 per 1,000 events; Custom plan by quote
Best for: Companies with negotiated enterprise contracts, commits and marketplace sales on top of self-serve usage.
Pros
- Rate cards, commits and credit models let sales close custom contracts without one-off billing code.
- Startup includes real-time usage metering and alerts, hybrid pricing and embeddable billing dashboards.
- Stripe sells it as its advanced usage-based billing product, so Stripe users have a native path.
Cons
- It is the most expensive of the four we can total, at $1,040 a month in our smaller scenario.
- Salesforce, NetSuite and cloud marketplace invoicing sit on the Custom plan, which has no list price.
Chargebee
A subscription billing platform whose Flow plan adds usage ingestion, SQL meters and real-time limits.
- Pricing
- Flow: 0.80% of invoicing volume, or $99/mo + 0.65%; includes 100M usage events/mo
Best for: Hybrid SaaS companies mixing seats and usage that want a large event allowance inside the rate.
Pros
- The flat-fee option becomes cheaper above $66,000 of monthly invoicing, and it is the lowest total at $200,000.
- Usage events are included in the Flow rate up to its monthly allowance, so most hybrid products pay no ingestion fee.
- Custom SQL logic defines meters from raw usage data, uploaded by API, CSV or S3.
Cons
- Ingesting up to 500M events a month is a paid Enterprise add-on, which has no list price.
- Multi-entity management, account hierarchies and contract terms also sit on Enterprise.
Lago
An open-source metering and billing platform, offered as Lago Cloud or self-hosted, with a paid Premium tier.
- Pricing
- Open-source edition free to self-host (AGPL-3.0); Lago Premium priced on request
Best for: Engineering-led teams that want to self-host billing or start on open source before buying.
Pros
- The core code is public on GitHub under AGPL-3.0, so a team can run and inspect the billing engine itself.
- Premium includes entitlements, prepaid credits, wallet alerts and a customer portal.
- Lago lists CoreWeave, Mistral AI and PayPal as customers, a sign it runs at AI-company volume.
Cons
- Lago prints no Premium price, so the bill cannot be compared before a quote.
- Progressive billing, tax integrations and automatic dunning are add-ons on request.
Maxio
A B2B billing and revenue platform that includes usage-based billing on every plan.
- Pricing
- Grow from $599/mo up to $100K monthly billings; Scale by quote above that
Best for: B2B SaaS finance teams that want a flat platform fee instead of a revenue share.
Pros
- Usage-based billing, recurring billing and dunning are included on every plan.
- A flat fee from $599 a month does not rise with each invoiced dollar up to $100,000.
- Revenue recognition and A/R reporting come standard on Grow.
Cons
- Event-based billing is an optional module with no published price.
- Above $100,000 of monthly billings the Scale plan is quote-only.
m3ter
A usage-based billing platform for B2B SaaS, now part of Salesforce, sold on a platform fee.
- Pricing
- Custom: core platform fee by size, with add-ons, support and implementation priced separately
Best for: Mid-size and large B2B SaaS companies already standardizing on Salesforce.
Pros
- The core platform fee includes allowances for usage data and bill calculations.
- Pre-built CRM and ERP integrations are available as add-ons.
- Now part of Salesforce, which matters to a team that runs quote-to-cash there.
Cons
- No list price: the platform fee, add-ons and support all need a quote.
- Implementation is sold as a service and described as part of a quote-to-cash project, so budget time as well as money.
Zenskar
An order-to-cash platform for usage and contract billing that prices by quote, not by billing volume.
- Pricing
- Starter, Standard and Enterprise: custom pricing; no percentage of revenue
Best for: Finance-led companies that want billing and revenue recognition without a revenue-share fee.
Pros
- Zenskar says it does not charge a percentage of revenue, so cost does not rise with billings.
- Every plan carries every feature; plans differ by support, integrations and implementation.
- Standard and Enterprise include 99.9% SLAs and hands-on or white-glove implementation.
Cons
- All three plans are custom priced, so there is no list price to compare.
- Starter comes with basic support and basic integrations only.
What it is
Usage-based billing software is a platform that ingests product usage events, applies a price to each billable metric, and generates invoices, credits and alerts from the result. It sits between the product's event stream and the payment processor, and most tools here also handle subscriptions so one system can bill a hybrid plan.
Why it matters
The bill for these tools has two meters, and the second one is easy to miss. Most vendors charge a share of billing volume, and the usage-native ones also charge per event ingested. At low prices per call, events can cost more than the revenue share: in our $200,000 scenario, event ingestion is more than half of Orb's bill.
Finance also inherits the hard parts. Prepaid credits, commitments, mid-cycle pricing changes and revenue recognition on consumption all start in the billing tool, so a weak choice turns into spreadsheet work at every close.
Key features to look for
Pricing
How we ranked: usage depth first (raw-event metering, credits and commits, alerts), then a published price a buyer can total, then the finance features a controller needs at close. We read each vendor's pricing page on October 21, 2026: Orb pricing and its credit consumption table, Stripe Billing pricing, Metronome pricing, Chargebee pricing, Lago pricing, Maxio pricing, m3ter pricing and Zenskar pricing.
Two scenarios, our arithmetic. Company A bills $80,000 a month and sends 10M usage events; Company B bills $200,000 and sends 50M. Orb costs $780 a month for A (130 credits) and $2,700 for B (450 credits). Metronome costs $1,040 and $3,600. Stripe Billing pay as you go costs $560 and $1,400, with both event volumes inside its monthly allowance. Chargebee Flow on its flat-fee option costs $619 and $1,399. Maxio Grow starts at $599 for A and moves to a quote for B. Card processing is excluded from every total.
The pattern matters more than the winner. Revenue-share tools with an event allowance (Stripe, Chargebee) stay cheapest while events are moderate; per-event pricing (Orb, Metronome) costs more as events grow but buys deeper metering. Quote-only vendors (Lago Premium, m3ter, Zenskar, Maxio Scale) need a written price at your own volume. Cross-check each vendor on Toolradar: Orb, Metronome, Stripe Billing, Chargebee and Lago.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Orb Business | $6 per credit | 1 credit per $1,000 of billings or 200,000 events; QuickBooks sync, Stripe and Adyen payments |
| Orb Enterprise | Custom | Adds NetSuite and Salesforce sync, revenue reports, multiple entities and audit trail |
| Stripe Billing pay as you go | 0.7% of billing volume | No base fee; up to 100M meter events a month included; excludes one-off invoices |
| Stripe Billing annual, lowest tier | $620/mo, 1-year contract | Covers up to $100,000 of monthly billing volume, 0.67% above that |
| Metronome Startup | 0.8% + $0.04 per 1,000 events | Real-time metering and alerts, hybrid pricing, native Stripe integration |
| Metronome Custom | Contact sales | Salesforce, NetSuite and cloud marketplace invoicing, warehouse exports |
| Chargebee Flow | 0.80%, or $99/mo + 0.65% | 100M usage events a month, SQL meters, real-time limits; options break even at $66,000 |
| Lago open source | Free to self-host | AGPL-3.0 code on GitHub; your team runs and maintains it |
| Lago Premium | Contact sales | Cloud or self-hosted, entitlements, prepaid credits, analytics dashboard |
| Maxio Grow | From $599/mo | Up to $100,000 of monthly billings, usage-based billing and revenue recognition included |
| m3ter | Custom | Core platform fee with usage and calculation allowances; integrations and support extra |
| Zenskar Starter, Standard, Enterprise | Custom | Every feature on every plan; tiers differ by support, integrations and implementation |
The bottom line
Orb is the best usage-based billing software for a product whose revenue is the event stream. Its credit price is printed, its metrics run on raw events, and it costs $780 a month at $80,000 of billings and 10M events. Stripe Billing and Chargebee are cheaper at both of our volumes because their event allowances absorb the ingestion cost, so they suit hybrid products where usage is one line on the invoice. Metronome is the pick for enterprise contracts with commits, at a higher list rate.
Lago fits teams that want open-source code they can host, and Maxio fits finance teams that prefer a flat fee up to $100,000 of billings. m3ter and Zenskar publish no price, so request a quote at your own volume before you compare them. For subscription-first billing, see our Stripe Billing review, Chargebee review and Maxio review, the Chargebee vs Stripe Billing comparison, and the Stripe Billing pricing and Chargebee pricing breakdowns. Revenue recognition on consumption is covered in our best revenue recognition software list. This page is general information, not personalized financial advice.
Cite this: CFOpresso, "Best Usage-Based Billing Software in 2026: 8 Platforms Priced on Events and Billings", November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best usage-based billing software in 2026?
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Orb vs Metronome: which costs less?
Which usage-based billing tools work with NetSuite?
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.
- Stripe Billing pricingchecked Sep 2026
- Chargebee pricingchecked Sep 2026
- Maxio pricingchecked Sep 2026
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.
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