Credit-based billing
for AI products

Launch credit-based pricing without building the billing system behind it. Works with Stripe.

  • Plan grant
  • Rollover & expiry
  • Usage caps
  • Ledger
Northwind · AI credit wallet
In your product · powered by Schematic
Company credits
12,000of 12,000 / mo
0 used
On track
Warn 20%
Usage caps · per user & per agent, per month
MC
Maya Chen
Member
0/ 2,000
Active
DP
Dev Patel
Member
0/ 1,500
Active
AI
SupportAI
AI agent
0/ 8,000
Active
Ledger · auditable
+5,000Top-up · auto policyJul 02
−312Summarize · maya@northwindJul 08
−140Agent run · support-botJul 08
Billing
VISA ···· 4242 synced to Stripe
Auto top-up on · below 500 → +5,000
Per-user and per-agent caps draw from the shared company pool.Real-time
Done
  • Burn rates
  • Reservations
  • Works with Stripe
  • Top-ups
MacabacusAutomoxPlotlyPickleheadsBigCommerceHannon HillTightknitZepSema4.aiSyrtoMakeswiftWobbyPagos

Credits look simple until you look below the surface

Behind every credit balance is infrastructure you have to build and maintain.

What the customer sees

What you build

Schematic is reliable credit infrastructure from day one

One real-time ledger

Every grant, draw, hold and expiry lands on one ledger, whichever model or provider burned the credits. The app, the portal and the invoice all read the same number.

Reserve and settle for parallel spend

An agent holds credits before it runs and settles at what it used. Ten runs in parallel cannot overdraw the pool.

Fully ASC 606 compatible

Unused credits stay deferred, burned credits recognize, expired credits break. Finance exports the ledger as it is.

Usage controls per user and per agent

Caps per request, per hour and per day. Set them on the plan or let the customer set them. Every check respects them.

Implement once. Flexible forever.

Connect Schematic once, and you can change prices, limits and plans without touching your code again.

Grant credits

Plans, bundles, top-ups and promos add credits to the balance.

Credit grants and burndown →

Check before the action runs

Schematic checks the balance and the caps, then reserves the credits.

Preflight checks →

Track what was used

The reservation settles at what was used. The rest returns.

Leases and reservations →

Refill or stop at zero

Top up, block or bill in arrears. The grant’s policy decides.

Empty balances and overage →
agent.ts
import { SchematicClient } from "@schematichq/schematic-typescript-node"
const result = await client.checkFlagWithEntitlement(
{ company: { id: "acme-robotics" }, user: { user_id: "agent-7" } },
"deep-research",
{ eventUsage: { eventSubtype: "steps", quantity: maxSteps } },
)
if (!result.value) return showLimitMessage(result.reason)
// acme-robotics → true 3,200 left · 25 reserved · 1 credit / step

Every grant, rate and top-up runs on one ledger.

One ledger keeps your product, your customers and your invoices on the same number. Customers trust their balance, and finance closes the month without reconciling.

Credit ledger · Acme RoboticsLive · example
Plan grant · Pro, monthlyNov 1+5,0005,000
Held · deep-research · agent-7Nov 3, 14:02−25 held4,975
Settled · 18 used, 7 backNov 3, 14:03−184,982
Expired · promo grant, OctoberDec 1−2004,782
Every entry has who, what and when. Export it as it is.Balance 5,000

A full, auditable ledger

Every grant, draw, hold and expiry is an append-only entry with who, what and when.

Pro plan · pool45,000 / month
++5,000

Grants that scale with seats

Grant credits per seat on a plan. The pool grows and shrinks as seats change.

What one use costsin credits
Agent run12
Message1
Video, 1 min40
Sonnet · 1k tokens6
GPT-5 · 1k tokens4
Gemini · 1k tokens2

A rate per feature and per model

Each feature and each model burns at its own rate. Change a rate any time.

Buy creditsin checkout or the portal
5,000one-time
10,000best per credit
25,000one-time
Auto top-up · below 500, buy 5,000

Bundles and auto top-up

Sell one-time bundles at checkout, and let auto top-up refill the balance before work stops.

Credit burndown · Acme RoboticsCompanyPer user
Runs out Dec 9 at this pace
12k6k0
Nov 1Nov 15Today
BalanceLast monthForecast
agent-73,580 · 50%
Maya Chen2,140 · 30%
Dev Patel1,500 · 21%

Track usage and show the burndown

A burndown per company and per user, with a forecast of when the balance runs out.

Last three callscost from your spans
Claude Sonnet2,140 tokens · 12.8 credits
64% margin
GPT-51,800 tokens · 7.2 credits
58% margin
Gemini Flash3,200 tokens · 6.4 credits
71% margin

Inference-based billing with cost tracking

Burn credits per token at a rate per model, and see the margin on every call.

Works with Stripe, and the rest of your stack

Stripe takes the payment and Schematic grants the credits, with customers, plans and subscriptions kept in sync both ways.

Run any credit pricing model, from seats to agents.

Seats with included credits

Each seat carries a monthly grant that pools across the team. Add a seat, the pool grows. Usage reports show what each person spent.

Pay-as-you-go credits for agents

Customers buy credit bundles and every agent run reserves before it starts. Caps per request, per agent and per day keep one loop from draining the balance.

Free tier, bundles and auto top-up

Start customers on a monthly free grant, sell bundles at checkout and let auto top-up refill the balance so work never stops.

Syrto
“I know companies that are putting so much development work into their billing platforms. Why? You shouldn’t build anything that isn’t your product.”
Pietro FarielloCTO, Syrto

Syrto AI monetized its MCP server after billing logic was hardcoded in a contractor-built web app. The team talked with Metronome, Orb and Chargebee, then realized that billing alone would not do: they needed entitlements too.

Read how Syrto monetized its MCP server

Most tools stop at the invoice. Schematic enforces, too.

With billing and enforcement in one system, you stay in control of what is spent and your customers can trust what they are charged.

SchematicSchematic
Build in-house
Stripe Billing alone
Usage invoicing platform
Real-time balance check before an action
Yes, with a preflight check
You build it
No; credits apply when the invoice finalizes
Balance via API and alerts; your app enforces
Reservations for parallel agents
Yes, reservations and leases
You build it
No
No; alerts fire after usage lands
Rollover %, expiry and consumption order per grant
Yes
You build it
Expiry and priority order; no rollover
Yes
Zero-balance policy (block, auto top-up, user top-up, arrears)
All four, per grant
You build it
Bills usage past the credits on the invoice
Auto top-up; block via your app on a balance alert
Customer-facing wallet, checkout and top-ups
Drop-in components
You build it
Checkout and customer portal; no in-app credit wallet
Embeddable usage and credit dashboards; you build the purchase UI
Per-user and per-agent spend caps
Hourly, daily, per request
You build it
No
Per-seat or per-group spend alerts; your app blocks
Best for
AI products that enforce and show credits
Unique needs and spare engineering capacity
Payments, invoices and tax
High-volume invoicing and contracts

Built for startup speed and enterprise scale

Fast, secure, reliable.

SOC 2 · AICPAGDPR compliantGDPRCOMPLIANTStripe Verified Partner

Availability

  • 99.99% uptime SLA
  • 24/7 support
  • Public status page
Availability docs

Security

  • SOC 2 Type 2 compliant
  • PCI Level 1 via Stripe
  • GDPR compliant, SSO and 2FA
Security docs

Observability

  • Audit logs and real-time events
  • Client-side rule evaluation
  • Replicator: reads stay in your network
Observability docs

Give your customers a wallet they trust.

Schematic’s ready-made credit wallet gives you what you need to sell credits with trust and transparency: a live balance, a usage history and a way to top up.

Built for engineers to ship pricing, product to experiment with it, and finance to trust it.

One check, one track call.

Grants, rates, caps and policies live outside the codebase. The preflight check and the track call are the whole integration, in the SDK you already use.

Preflight checks

Reprice without a deploy.

Launch a grant, a bundle or a cap from the dashboard. Roll a rate change into a new plan version while current customers keep theirs.

Plan versions

A ledger your auditors can read.

Deferred, recognized and expired per grant, exported for ASC 606, from the same ledger the app enforces. No month-end reconciliation between the two.

Revenue recognition data

Frequently asked questions about AI credits

Short answers, each one backed by the docs. Still stuck? The docs and the demo both go deeper.

Credit-based billing means customers prepay for a balance of credits, and each feature draws it down at its own rate. Schematic keeps that balance on a real-time ledger, so what you enforce is what the customer sees and what you bill. Revenue scales with usage, customers prepay instead of getting surprise invoices, and several features share one pricing metric.

Launch credits without building a ledger

Grant, burn, top up and cap credits in real time, with a wallet your customers can see. Works with Stripe.