A value metric is the unit a subscription price is based on, such as users, locations, transactions, contacts or resolved conversations. A good value metric rises as the customer gets more value, so your revenue grows without a new sale. The Subscription Playbook's test: it should be value-based, scalable, flexible, feasible to measure and predictable for the customer.
Key takeaways
- Your value metric is the thing you count. Your pricing model is how you charge for it.
- A good metric grows with the customer's success, so revenue expands without an upsell.
- Test every candidate on five factors: value-based, scalable, flexible, feasible, predictable.
- AI is pushing businesses away from per-seat metrics toward transactions, credits and outcomes.
In December 2025, WiseTech Global did something most software companies wouldn't dare.
It stopped charging for users.
Think about that for a second. A software company voluntarily walked away from the most common pricing unit in SaaS.
The Australian logistics software company moved CargoWise customers off seat and user fees and onto transaction-based "Value Packs." Its reasoning was blunt: AI will disrupt businesses that charge by the seat, but "our revenue is not diluted by customers becoming more productive."
That decision is about one thing: the value metric.
What does value metric mean?
A value metric is the unit your price is based on. It's the thing you count.
Per user. Per location. Per 1,000 contacts. Per transaction. Per resolved support ticket. Per pet.
A good value metric does one job. When your customer gets more value from you, they pay you more, automatically. No upsell call, no renegotiation. The bill follows the value.
A bad one does the opposite. Either it stalls (big customers pay the same as small ones), or it punishes customers for using you more. (Your accountant would call that a margin problem. I'd call it a pricing problem.)
Value metric examples
| Business | Value metric | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Fin (AI support agent) | Per resolved conversation ($0.99) | The customer only pays when a ticket is actually solved |
| WiseTech CargoWise | Per transaction | Grows with shipping volume, not headcount |
| Atlassian | Per user, plus pooled AI credits | Seats for access, credits for heavy AI work |
| Email marketing tool | Per contact on the list | Bigger list, bigger audience, bigger bill |
| Vet wellness plan | Per pet | A second dog is a second plan |
| Car wash club | Per vehicle | One price per car, unlimited washes |
| Bookkeeping firm | Per entity or bank account | More entities means more work and more value |
Notice the last three. Value metrics aren't just for software. Every subscription counts something, whether you've thought about it or not.
The five tests from the book
In Chapter Four of The Subscription Playbook, I said your metric "must be a metric that grows consistently with your customers and helps you communicate the value of your service. It needs to be value-based, scalable, flexible, feasible, and predictable."
| Test | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| Value-based | Does more of this unit mean more value for the customer? |
| Scalable | Does it keep growing as the customer grows? |
| Flexible | Does it work for a tiny customer and a huge one? |
| Feasible | Can you measure it accurately and cheaply? |
| Predictable | Can the customer estimate next month's bill? |
In the book I used Snowflake (data volume) and Attentive (messages sent) as examples. Both metrics tie the price straight to the service. Run your own candidates through the five tests with the Value Metric Finder.
Value Metric FinderScore candidate value metrics and pick the one that grows with your customers.Open the free tool →What people confuse it with
Value metric vs pricing model. Your pricing model is the structure: flat fee, tiers, usage, hybrid. Your value metric is what that structure counts. Two businesses can both sell three tiers, but if one tiers by users and the other by transactions, they'll grow very differently.
Value metric vs usage metric. Storage and API calls are easy to count, but customers rarely care about them. A value metric counts what the customer cares about. Sometimes the two are the same. Often they aren't.
Value metric vs value-based pricing. Value-based pricing is how you set the price level. The value metric is the unit the price attaches to. You want both.
Value metric vs outcome. An outcome (a resolution, a booked meeting) is the purest value metric there is, but only works when it can be counted and attributed. See outcome-based pricing.
Why this matters more in 2026
Per-seat pricing assumes value grows with headcount. AI breaks that assumption.
So here's the question I'd ask about your own pricing: if your product lets a team of ten do the work of twenty, do you get paid more or less? With a seat metric, you get paid less as you deliver more.
That's why so many companies now add credits or usage allowances on top of the seat, or drop the seat altogether. If you're weighing that move, compare seat-based vs usage-based pricing and read how WiseTech killed seat fees.
Find your value metric in five minutes
Score your candidate metrics against the five tests with the free Value Metric Finder.
What to do next
Write down three units you could charge by. Score each against the five tests. Then pick one primary metric and resist adding a second unless you must.
For the full method, with 30 examples and a worked scoring exercise, read the guide to choosing a value metric. And if you want to see how metrics plug into a usage model, start with usage-based pricing.
Back to the subscription and pricing glossary.
Frequently asked questions
Is a value metric the same as a usage metric?
Often, but not always. A usage metric counts activity, such as API calls or storage. A value metric counts something the customer cares about. Sometimes they're the same thing (messages sent for an SMS platform). Sometimes they're not: storage is easy to measure, but most customers don't value gigabytes, they value the files and projects inside them.
Can a service business have a value metric?
Yes. A bookkeeper might price per entity or per bank account, a cleaner per room, a vet per pet, a car wash per vehicle and an IT firm per device. The test is the same: does the count go up when the client gets more value from you, and can both of you agree on the number each month?
How often should you change your value metric?
Rarely. Changing it is one of the hardest pricing moves you can make, because some customers will pay more and some less. Most businesses keep one primary metric for years and adjust prices, tiers and allowances around it. Change it when the old metric stops tracking value, as seats did for many AI-heavy products.
What is the most common value metric in SaaS?
Per seat (per user) is still the most common, because it's simple to measure and easy to forecast. But in 2026 many products pair the seat with a usage allowance, such as Atlassian's pooled Rovo credits per user, or replace it with transactions, credits or outcomes, because AI lets customers do more work with fewer people.
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Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- WiseTech Global: 1H26 results briefing scripts (Feb 2026)
- Intercom (Fin) pricing, checked 27 Oct 2026
- Atlassian Support: Rovo usage limits
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.