Billing for Usage
MonetizeNow supports usage based billing which can be done in the UI, with a CSV upload or via the API.
Charge your customers for exactly what they use. Stream usage straight from your product, upload a CSV, or in the UI. MonetizeNow prices it and puts it on the invoice for you.
Sending usage from your product? Your engineering team can start with the Usage API reference. See Record your customers' usage for what they'll need.
How it fits together
| Step | What you do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Define what you measure | Product Catalog → Usage Types |
| 2 | Create a product you can sell | Product Catalog → Products (Product Type: Usage) |
| 3 | Set your price | Product Catalog → Offerings → Rate |
| 4 | Sell it | Add the offering to a quote, as with any other product |
| 5 | Record your customers' usage | An automatic feed from your product, a CSV import, or the customer's Usage tab |
| 6 | Invoice | MonetizeNow adds usage to each invoice automatically |
1. Define what you measure (usage types)
A usage type is the unit you charge for, such as "API Call" counted in "calls" or "Data Transfer" counted in "GB".
Go to Product Catalog → Usage Types and click New Usage Type.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Name | The singular name, e.g. API Call |
| Plural Name | e.g. API Calls |
| Description | Optional note for your team |
| Unit Name | The unit your customers see, e.g. calls, GB, hours |
| Decimal Place | How many decimals to show for quantities (0 for whole numbers) |
| Status | Active. Inactive usage types can't be added to new products. |
Each usage type gets an ID that starts withusgt_.You'll need this ID when you import usage via API or via a spreadsheet
2. Create a usage product
Go to Product Catalog → New → Product, set Product Type to Usage, and in Usage Configuration pick the Usage Type this product charges for. If it doesn't exist yet, choose + New Usage Type to create it on the spot.
A product can combine more than one usage type as long as they share the same unit.Note that Each usage type can appear on only one product within the same offering to ensure appropriate billing.
3. Set your price
Add the usage product to an offering, then open the offering's rate. Usage products appear under Product Prices with "(Usage)" after their name. Usage is always billed monthly, after the month ends. You'll see this as Usage Frequency: Monthly on the rate.
For each usage product, choose:
Aggregation Model — how the month's usage is totaled
- Sum (most common): adds up everything recorded in the month. Use this for things that accumulate, like API calls or messages sent.
- Monthly Average: averages the quantities recorded in the month. Use this when you record a level rather than a count, for example daily storage or active seats.
Pricing Model — how the total is turned into a charge
| Pricing model | How your customer is charged | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tiered | Each tier is priced separately, then added up | First 100,000 calls free, next 900,000 at $0.002, the rest at $0.0015 |
| Volume | The whole quantity is charged at the price of the tier the total lands in | Under 1,000 GB: $0.09/GB for everything; over 1,000 GB: $0.07/GB for everything |
| Flat | A fixed amount for the tier, no matter how much is used | $500 for up to 1M calls |
| Block | Charged per block of units, and partial blocks round up | $40 per 100 compute hours, so 101 hours bills as 2 blocks |
| Custom | Your sales team sets the per-unit price on each quote |
4. Record your customers' usage
Every usage record belongs to one customer subscription and one usage type, and has a date and time. Dates and times are always in UTC. There are three ways to record usage:
- Send it automatically from your product. Best for ongoing billing, and what most businesses use.
- Import a spreadsheet. Good for backfills, migrations or a monthly batch.
- Add it by hand. For one-off entries and corrections.
Usage added to a month that has already been invoiced is saved, but the existing invoice won't change. When you add usage by hand, you'll see a warning first. See Correcting usage that's already been invoiced.
Send usage automatically from your product (recommended)
Your product reports usage to MonetizeNow as it happens, so invoices stay current with no manual work. Your engineering team sets this up once using the MonetizeNow API.
What your engineering team needs
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
id | A unique reference your product creates for each usage event |
timestamp | When the usage happened, in UTC, e.g. 2026-10-15T06:00:00Z |
accountId | The customer's account ID (starts with acct_) |
subscriptionId | The customer's subscription ID (starts with sub_) |
usageTypeId | The usage type ID (starts with usgt_) |
unitsConsumed | How much was used |
ratedPrice | Optional. A price override for the event |
They'll also need a MonetizeNow API key, sent in the x-api-key header.
- Your product can send up to 100 events per request.
- Each response says whether the batch succeeded, partly succeeded or failed, and lists any rejected events with the reason, so only those need to be fixed and resent.
- Usage dated within the last 45 days shows up in MonetizeNow almost immediately. Older usage can take up to 6 hours to appear.
Full details are in the Usage API reference. Usage your product sends appears on the customer's Usage tab and in Usage Management, the same as usage added any other way (see Review your customers' usage).
Import usage from a spreadsheet
Use this to load usage for many customers at once, for example to backfill past usage, migrate from another system or load a monthly batch. The columns are the same fields the API uses.
- Go to Billing → Usage Management and click Import Usage. To import for a single customer only, open their Usage tab, choose Review Events on a product, then ⋮ → Import Usage. The account and subscription are filled in for you.
- Click Download Template to get a CSV with the right columns. Save your file as CSV, not Excel, and keep it under 10 MB.
| Column | Required? | What to put in it |
|---|---|---|
id | No | A unique reference for each row. Leave it blank and MonetizeNow creates one. |
timestamp | Yes | When the usage happened, in UTC, e.g. 2026-10-15T06:00:00Z |
accountId | Yes* | The customer's account ID (starts with acct_) |
subscriptionId | Yes* | The customer's subscription ID (starts with sub_) |
usageTypeId | Yes | The usage type ID (starts with usgt_) |
unitsConsumed | Yes | How much was used |
ratedPrice | No | A price override for the whole row |
* Not needed when you import from a customer's account within the UI.
- Drop the file in. MonetizeNow checks it, shows you a preview, and flags anything it can't read before you import.
- Click Import. When it finishes, you'll see how many rows succeeded. If any rows were rejected, click Download Errors to get just those rows with the reason for each. Fix them and import that file again. The rows that succeeded don't need to be re-imported.
Eachidcan only be used once. If you import the same row twice, the second one is rejected as a duplicate rather than counted again, so it's safe to re-run a file.
Add usage via the UI
Use this for one-off entries and corrections.
- Open the customer's account and go to the Usage tab. You'll see each subscription that includes usage products, with the usage recorded so far this month. Click the arrow, or Expand all, to see each product.
- Click the three dots next to the usage product and choose Add Usage.
- Fill in the form:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Usage Timestamp (UTC) | When the usage happened. Your local time is shown underneath to help you check. Can't be in the future. |
| Usage ID | A unique reference for this record. Click Generate to create one. |
| Unit(s) | How much was used. |
| Usage Type | Filled in for you when the product has only one usage type. |
- Optional: to charge a specific amount instead of the rate's price, check Override the price for the usage record and enter an Amount Override. That amount is charged once for the whole record. For example, an override of $25.00 on 12,500 units charges $25.00.
5. Review your customers' usage
For one customer, open their account's Usage tab. From a product's three-dot menu:
- View Trend shows a daily chart of usage and its value for the current or previous month.
- Review Events lists every usage record. You can filter by date, export to CSV, add, import, edit or void records.
Across all customers, go to Billing → Usage Management:
- Individual Usage Records lists every record. You can select several at once to void them.
- Aggregated Usage Records shows totals per customer, subscription and usage type.
Quick date ranges are available under the ⋮ menu: Current Month, Previous Month, Last 7, 30 or 60 Days. Both views export to CSV.
6. Fix a usage record
- Edit changes the quantity or the price override. To change anything else, such as the date or usage type, void the record and add a new one.
- Void sets the record's quantity to zero. You can edit a voided record later to put a quantity back.
You need billing edit permissions to add, import, edit or void usage. Usage can't be added to a canceled subscription.
7. How usage appears on your customers' invoices
- Usage is billed after the month ends. For example, your customer's November invoice includes their October usage, priced with the rate you set up.
- Months run on UTC time, from 12:00 AM on the 1st to 11:59 PM on the last day.
- Usage isn't prorated. It's always billed for the whole month.
- Usage invoices aren't created early. This makes sure all of the month's usage is in before the invoice is generated.
- Usage lines show the quantity, unit price, amount and the month it covers.
- Upcoming amounts exclude usage. On a bill group's billing schedule, amounts marked with * don't include usage yet, because usage is calculated when the invoice is generated.
- Zero-usage lines. To leave usage products with no usage off the invoice, turn off Show usage products without any usage events in your invoice template settings.
8. Correcting usage that's already been invoiced
Invoices that have already been sent are not updated automatically when usage is added, edited or voided afterward. To bill the difference:
- Credit and Rebill the invoice. MonetizeNow issues a credit note and a new invoice that includes the corrected usage.
- Or apply a credit, or create a one-time invoice for the difference.
Credit and Rebill isn't available for one-time invoices that contain usage products. Create a credit note manually and re-create the invoice instead.
If a quote adds a usage product to a customer starting in a month that's already been invoiced, the quote shows a warning that usage before the next invoice date won't be billed automatically.
9. Minimum commitments and prepaid credit
Minimum commit
Use a Minimum Commit offering when a customer commits to spend a set amount on usage each period.
- Setting the amount. The commit is priced at $1 per unit on the rate. On the quote, enter the commitment amount as the quantity, for example 5,000 for a $5,000 commitment.
- Apply To controls which usage counts toward the commitment:
- All Usage Products
- Specific Usage Products
- All Except Specific Usage Products
- Minimum Commit Frequency sets the commitment period: Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-annually or Annually.
- Minimum Commit Timing controls how the commitment is billed:
- Advance: the commitment is invoiced up front. Each month's usage is then drawn down against it, shown as a deduction on the invoice. Usage beyond the commitment is billed normally.
- Arrears: at the end of the period, the customer is billed for any shortfall between their commitment and their actual usage. If their usage exceeded the commitment, there's no extra commit charge.
Prepaid credit
A Onetime Pre-Paid Credit product lets a customer pay in advance and use it up over time. When it's invoiced, it creates a credit on the customer's account. Credit Application controls what the credit can pay for:
- Usage Products Only (the default)
- All Products
- Subscription Products Only
- Specific Products
Unused credit expires when the contract ends.
Updated 11 days ago