Stripe. Pricing model: Usage-based. Value metric: Percentage of billing volume, or annual contract tiers.
At a glance
| Company | Stripe |
|---|---|
| What it does | Stripe Billing |
| Pricing model | Usage-based |
| Value metric | Percentage of billing volume, or annual contract tiers |
| Free tier | No subscription fee on pay-as-you-go; pay only on billing volume. |
| Pricing page | stripe.com/billing/pricing |
Plans and prices
Prices as published on Stripe's pricing page, checked 27 October 2026. They change often; check the live page before you rely on them.
| Plan | Price | Billing | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as you go | 0.7% of billing volume | per transaction volume | Includes on- and off-Stripe billing transactions; excludes one-off invoices |
| Annual contract | $620 / $1,500 / $2,950 / $5,750 | per month on 1-year contract | |
| Card processing (US) | 2.9% + 30c per successful card charge; ACH 0.8% capped at $5 | per transaction |
Usage component. Meters API for usage-based billing (up to 100M events/month included); advanced usage billing via Metronome.
How credits/tokens work. Supports credit grants, prepaid balances and metered events for customers' own usage pricing.
What changed in 2025–2026
14 Jan 2026: Stripe completed its acquisition of Metronome (metering used by OpenAI, Anthropic and NVIDIA per Stripe); Patrick Collison: 'the shift toward usage-based models will be a defining feature of the next decade.'
What you can steal
Pricing
Billing infrastructure is consolidating around usage-based AI pricing. If you plan to meter, use billing tools that support credits, prepaid balances and caps rather than building your own.
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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.