Credit-based billing platforms for AI products

For an AI product with a credit-based system, I'd shortlist Stripe, Metronome, Orb, Lago, and Schematic.

The important distinction is that you don't just need a payment processor. You need a billing platform that can manage credit balances, usage deduction, prepaid purchases, subscriptions, and automatic top-ups.

For most AI SaaS products, I'd start by evaluating Stripe and Metronome, then compare them against Lago if you want more control over the credit infrastructure.

1. Best billing platforms compared

Evaluation based on the 2026 product landscape.

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1. Stripe Billing

(Best starting point)

• Payment processing and subscriptions.
• Usage-based billing and metering.
• Checkout, invoices, and customer portal.
• Strong ecosystem and developer APIs.

Best for: AI startups selling monthly subscriptions with additional credit purchases.

Website and documentation

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2. Metronome

(Best for advanced AI usage)

• Prepaid credit burndown.
• Real-time usage tracking.
• Complex pricing models.
• Enterprise contracts and commitments.
• High-volume event ingestion.

Best for: AI APIs, LLM platforms, and products with complex consumption pricing.

Website

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3. Orb

• Flexible usage metering.
• Prepaid credit pools.
• Complex pricing configurations.
• Pricing simulation and analytics.

Best for: AI companies with sophisticated usage metrics and enterprise pricing.

Website

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4. Lago

(Best open-source option)

• Open-source billing infrastructure.
• Usage-based billing.
• Customer credit wallets.
• Subscription and invoice management.
• Self-hosting options.

Best for: Engineering teams wanting control over billing infrastructure and less vendor lock-in.

Website

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5. Schematic

• In-product entitlements.
• Feature limits and usage allowances.
• Credit and consumption-based packaging.
• Subscription and plan management.

Best for: Products where credits are closely tied to feature access, plans, and customer entitlements.

Website

The market comparison also identifies Stripe as a good entry point, Metronome for sophisticated metering, Orb for complex pricing, and Lago for open-source control.www.hyperline.co+3

2. Feature comparison

One important distinction: billing and credit enforcement are not necessarily the same thing.

For example, you might use Stripe to collect payments but maintain your own credit ledger to control whether customers can execute AI operations.

Metronome specifically supports prepaid credit burndown, while Stripe's basic usage billing is better suited to simpler pay-as-you-go models.stripe.com+2

3. How I'd architect the credit system

Regardless of which billing provider you select, I'd recommend this architecture:

Payment provider

Stripe / Metronome / Lago

Customer purchases credits

Credit ledger

Your application database

Credit grants · Balances · Transactions · Expiration

Usage authorization

Check balance and reserve credits

AI execution

LLM calls · Image generation · Agents · API usage

Reconciliation

Calculate actual usage and settle reserved credits

I'd implement these core capabilities:

1. Credit purchases: Customers can purchase predefined credit packages.
2. Subscription allowances: Monthly subscriptions automatically grant credits.
3. Credit deduction: Deduct credits based on actual AI consumption.
4. Credit reservations: Reserve credits before expensive AI operations.
5. Automatic top-ups: Allow customers to replenish balances when they fall below a threshold.
6. Credit expiration: Support expiration dates and rollover policies.
7. Usage history: Show customers exactly where their credits went.
8. Refunds and adjustments: Support failed operations, refunds, and administrative credit grants.

One particularly important engineering decision: use an append-only transaction ledger rather than simply storing and overwriting a user's balance. This makes reconciliation, refunds, and debugging much easier.

4. My recommendation

I'd narrow it down to three:

If you're building a relatively conventional AI SaaS with monthly subscriptions and purchasable credit packs, I'd start with Stripe + your own credit ledger.

If you're building something with multiple AI models, variable token costs, complex enterprise contracts, and sophisticated prepaid consumption, I'd evaluate Metronome.

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5. A few questions that would change my recommendation

I'd like to understand your actual business model before recommending a specific implementation.

1. What type of AI product are you building?

AI SaaS application

AI API platform

AI agent platform

AI image/video generation platform

Multi-model AI platform

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2. How do you want credits to work?

Subscription + monthly credits

One-time prepaid credit purchases

Subscription + additional credit packs

Pure pay-as-you-go

Combination of all models

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3. Which payment infrastructure do you currently use?

Stripe

Paddle

Lemon Squeezy

None yet

Other

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4. Expected customer scale?

Under 10,000

10,000–100,000

100,000–1 million

Over 1 million

[Submit answers]

With those answers, I can narrow this down to the best platform and propose a concrete implementation architecture, including database schema, APIs, webhook handling, and credit deduction logic.