Stripe unbundles usage-based billing into Metronome
Stripe moved advanced usage-based billing out of its 0.7% Billing rate into Metronome, a Stripe product with its own Startup and Custom plans; basic metering stays at 100M events/mo.
Billing at 0.7% of Billing volume covered recurring AND usage-based (metered) billing, with 100 million metered events per month included in the rate.
Billing stays 0.7% of Billing volume for recurring subscriptions. Usage-based billing now shows a Contact Metronome CTA instead of an Included checkmark. Metronome Startup: US$100,000.00 billing allotment + 10 million usage events, overages subject to additional pricing. Metronome Custom: custom pricing. Basic usage-based billing remains via Stripe's Meters API, up to 100M events per month, inside Billing pricing.
Stripe’s Billing pricing page no longer marks usage-based billing as “Included”. The feature row now reads “Usage-based billing*” with a Contact Metronome link, and the asterisk resolves to: “Basic usage-based billing features will continue to be available via Stripe’s Meters API as part of Billing pricing, with up to 100M events per month included.”
On stripe.com/pricing, Metronome has been inserted as its own product card between Billing and Invoicing, described as “Real-time metering, pricing and analytics for usage-based billing” and labelled “a Stripe product” on the Billing page. It carries two plans: Startup — priced “Included” with a US$100,000.00 billing allotment, 10 million usage events, and “Overages subject to additional pricing” — and Custom, quoted via “Contact Metronome”. The Billing card’s own description narrowed from “recurring, usage-based, and one-time billing” to “recurring revenue models and one-time billing”.
Headline rates were unchanged. Billing remains 0.7% of Billing volume, covering transactions processed on and off Stripe and excluding one-off invoices, and Invoicing Starter remains 0.4% per paid invoice. Connect still starts at a 0.25% fee, Workflows still includes 10,000 steps per month, and the customer portal custom domain is listed at US$10 per month.
The packaging move matters beyond Stripe. The default billing engine for much of the SaaS and AI market has priced high-end usage metering as a separately-quoted product rather than a bundled feature, which changes the build-vs-buy math for anyone metering tokens or events at volume.
Stripe split advanced usage-based billing out of the 0.7% Billing rate. The Billing pricing page now shows 'Usage-based billing*' with a Contact Metronome CTA instead of an Included checkmark, footnoted 'Basic usage-based billing features will continue to be available via Stripe's Meters API as part of Billing pricing, with up to 100M events per month included.' On stripe.com/pricing, Metronome appears as its own product card between Billing and Invoicing with two plans — Startup (Included; US$100,000.00 billing allotment, 10 million usage events, overages subject to additional pricing) and Custom (custom pricing, contact Metronome). Billing stays 0.7% of Billing volume and Invoicing Starter stays 0.4% per paid invoice; the customer portal custom domain is listed at US$10 per month. Stripe's Billing FAQ states 'Metronome, a Stripe product, is not included in Stripe Billing', and Stripe's docs direct all new usage-based integrations to Metronome while keeping the Meters API supported for existing ones. Metronome's own pricing page resolves Stripe's unpriced overage to 0.8% of billing volume above the US$100,000 allotment and $0.04 per 1,000 events above 10 million.