2. Amberflo

Amberflo is a usage-metering and billing platform that focuses on high-volume event ingestion and AI metering. It is often used by teams that want clear visibility into model usage, budget consumption, and cost-to-revenue alignment.

Key Features

• Metering Engine: Track any event like tokens, inference requests, model calls with ease.​

• Real-Time Cost Analytics: Set credit conversions and optimize margins on the go.​

• Usage Dashboards: Give customers and teams crystal-clear insights into usage.​

• Flexible Tier Builder: Create usage-based, prepaid, or credit-based product tiers.​

• Multi-Metric Pricing Rules: Apply flexible pricing to complex AI workloads, no matter how many metrics you track.

3. Zenskar: AI-native billing and contract workflows for credit-heavy pricing

Zenskar is a billing tool built for finance-heavy teams that need end-to-end billing, revenue recognition, and audit-ready reporting. It supports usage-based, credit-based, and complex contract workflows.

Key Features

• No-Code Plan Builder: Set up plans, credit models, and pricing rules without touching code.​

• Real-Time Dashboards: Get instant exports and visibility into usage for finance teams.​

• Automated Revenue Recognition: Stay audit-ready with seamless rev-rec and reporting.​

• Built-In Invoicing & Collections: Automate cash collection and invoice workflows for every AI product.​

4. Maxio: Billing and revenue automation for complex SaaS + AI setups

Maxio is a billing platform built for SaaS companies and supports automation, especially when layering credit-based or hybrid pricing on top of recurring models.

Key Features

• Credit Add-Ons & Usage Tiers: Support credit-based and usage tiers alongside classic SaaS pricing.​

• Revenue Recognition: Automate rev-rec for complex billing cycles and multi-year deals.​

• Flexible Contract Configuration: Customize contracts for pilots, enterprise, and everything in between.​

• Usage Data Ingestion: Feed metered usage into your credit-based pricing workflows.​

• Finance Workflow Automation: Streamline billing and reporting for mid-market AI companies.

5. Younium: B2B subscription operations with support for credit add-ons

Younium is a subscription management platform for B2B SaaS companies that need to layer usage-based or credit-based components on top of recurring revenue models.

Key Features

• Hybrid Pricing: Mix subscriptions, usage, and credits in one workflow.​

• Contract Lifecycle Management: Handle renewals, amendments, and more with ease.​

• BI, CRM, ERP Integrations: Connect billing to your stack for seamless ops.​

• AI Feature Integration: Gate, track, and bill for AI features inside your SaaS suite.

Common Types of Credits 

1. Usage credits

The most basic type of credits that map directly to product consumption.

For example, a platform might define 1 credit as 100 tokens or 1 second of compute, and every action the customer takes burns a predictable number of credits.

These are what most AI and infrastructure products start with. The burn rate is usually linear, but can be non‑linear as well for heavy workloads.

2. Feature‑scoped credits

These are the credits that can only be used for specific capabilities. Instead of a generic credit pool, a customer might have separate buckets like image generation credits, fine‑tuning credits and advanced analytics credits. 

These credits help in preventing heavy features from being abused and make premium functionality explicit and priced separately.

3. Tier‑bound credits

Tier‑bound credits are credits that are bundled into subscription plans and typically refill on a regular schedule, like monthly. 

These credits are tied to a specific plan or tier, and can only be used within the limits of that tier. Instead of credits being fully flexible across all usage, the tier defines how, where, and at what rate credits can be consumed.

For example, a Starter plan might include 10,000 credits per month, while a Pro plan includes 100,000.

4. Monetary‑equivalent credits

Monetary‑equivalent credits behave like stored value, where each credit has a fixed monetary value. 

For instance, a platform might set $1 equal to 100 credits, so a $100 top‑up gives the customer 10,000 credits. These credits can then be spent across different features or usage types, similar to a prepaid wallet.

5. Promotional/ Free credits

Promotional or free credits are credits given to customers for growth and onboarding. These can include sign‑up credits, referral bonuses, credits for hackathons, or credits for startup programs. They’re usually non‑refundable, expire after a short period, and are often restricted to non‑production usage. 

The goal of these credits is to lower the barrier to trial, encourage exploration, and turn new users into paying customers, while limiting the financial risk to the business.

6. Expiring credits

Expiring credits are credits that have a hard time limit and disappear if not used by a certain time. For example, a customer might get 30‑day credits that vanish at the end of the month, or annual prepaid credits that expire at the end of the year.  

These are used to improve cash flow, reduce the company’s liability, and encourage customers to use the product more quickly. From the pricing perspective, expiring credits create a sense of urgency and can significantly increase usage velocity, especially in products where usage tends to be occasional.

7. Roll‑over credits

The concept of roll‑over credits is opposite to that of expiring credits where unused credits are carried forward into the next billing period. 

For example, if a customer has 10,000 credits per month and only uses 7,000, the remaining 3,000 roll over to the next month, sometimes with a cap like up to 2× the monthly allowance. 

This model is usually reserved for enterprise plans and high‑trust customers, because it signals flexibility and long‑term partnership. It also helps smooth out usage spikes and makes the pricing feel more generous and customer‑friendly.

8. Organisational level Vs User‑level credits

Organisational level and user‑level credits define who owns and controls these credits. In an org‑level model, there’s a shared pool of credits that can be used by any team or workspace within the organization, and admins can see and manage the overall usage. 

In a user‑level model, credits are allocated per individual user or seat, so each person has their own balance. 

Enterprise customers almost always expect org‑level control, with visibility into how credits are distributed across teams, because it aligns with how they manage budgets and permissions in other enterprise tools.

9. Burst or priority credits

Burst or priority credits are used to unlock performance rather than features. For example, a customer might spend credits to jump the queue, get faster inference, or run workloads during peak hours. 

These credits are common in infrastructure and AI platforms where latency and throughput matter, because they let heavy users pay for better performance without changing their core plan. This model works well when the product has clear performance tiers and customers are willing to pay extra for speed or priority access.

10. Hybrid Credits

Hybrid credits are priced across multiple dimensions, like compute, time, and model tier. For example, 1 credit might represent a combination of GPU seconds, duration, and the model being used, so a more expensive model or longer job consumes more credits. 

This model is the best for complex, variable workloads, but it can become dangerous if it’s not transparent, because customers may struggle to predict how many credits an action will cost. 

It is best used when the underlying cost structure is truly multi‑dimensional and the product team can clearly explain the pricing logic. Most strong systems start with 1–2 core credit types, then layer complexity only when revenue or usage forces it.

Credits are becoming the default model for AI pricing

Credits are quickly becoming the default way AI companies price their products, and for all good reasons. They give customers a clear, predictable way to budget for their AI usage, while giving you control over your cost and revenue curves. Hence, no more surprise bills or endless finance meetings trying to explain those invoice swings.

Right now, credits are the stable foundation AI teams need. They smooth out the chaos of variable costs and let you experiment with pricing until you have enough data to move toward outcome-based or value-based models. Think of credits as the bridge to a future where you charge for business results, not just compute time.

How AI teams can ship credit-based billing in days with Flexprice

Flexprice makes it easy to get started. Define your billable metrics like tokens, model calls, or agent actions using the metering API. 

Then, create plans with bundled credits, expiry rules, rollover options, and top-up packs. Connect credit wallets to subscriptions, automate real-time deductions, and sync invoices, usage, and entitlements through the event pipeline. 

Launch new credit-based models, experiment safely, and iterate all without rewriting your backend code. 

In short, credits are the smart, flexible way to price AI products in 2026 giving customers clarity, and you control and the freedom to innovate and scale. 

Ready to get started with credit-based pricing? Head to Flexprice’s documentation to launch your first credit plan, set up real-time metering, and automate billing all in just minutes, not days, not weeks; just minutes.

FAQs

1. Do I need to build my own credit system or use a billing platform?

Using a billing platform like Flexprice is faster and more reliable. It supports real-time metering, credit management, and flexible pricing without needing to build from scratch.

2. Should AI credits expire?

Expiry is optional, but common. Expiring credits help vendors manage liabilities and encourage consistent usage, while rollover rules maintain fairness. Many AI companies use a mix of expiry windows and rollover policies for enterprise plans.

3. How do you decide what one credit should equal?

Most teams map credits to a consistent unit of compute such as tokens, inference minutes, or API requests. The goal is to anchor credits to something predictable while keeping the system simple enough for customers to understand.

4. How do invoices work with credit-based pricing?

Invoices typically include the credit purchase amount, remaining balances, and any overage charges if credits are exhausted. Good billing platforms generate these automatically based on real-time usage and credit deductions.

5. How is credit-based billing different from usage-based billing?

Usage-based billing charges customers after consumption, often leading to unpredictable invoices. Credit-based billing shifts to a prepaid model where customers spend from a known balance, reducing risk and giving both sides more clarity.

6. How do invoices work with credit-based pricing?

Invoices typically include the credit purchase amount, remaining balances, and any overage charges if credits are exhausted. Good billing platforms like Flexprice generate these automatically based on real-time usage and credit deductions.