The ultimate guide to usage-based pricing
Launching a usage-based pricing model
Measure and track usage
Pricing and packaging for usage
A CFO’s guide to usage pricing models
Revenue recognition for usage
The pros and cons of usage-based pricing
The technology to support usage pricing

The technology to support usage pricing

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05 Minute Read
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Discover the software for usage success

Over the past 15 years, we’ve worked with some of the best companies in the world. When it comes to usage-based pricing software, we’ve seen what works, what the pitfalls can be, and where gaps in the market currently exist.

We took a holistic, end-to-end approach with our usage solutions. Zuora gives finance teams the right billing and revenue automation tools, customers the transparency and flexibility to consume what they want, and product owners the right mediation, metering, and pricing tools to pivot from pure pay-as-you go to hybrid models – and everything in between.

Keep reading to learn more about why Zuora is the total package when it comes to usage-based pricing.

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Accurately capture and meter usage

Your engineering team should be spending time on your product, not building usage metering.

Give your product teams the flexibility to meter whatever they want, without spending engineering cycles building, and re-building code for metering usage or getting pulled into every customer dispute.

Zuora makes usage data easier to manage

While some vendors only offer basic usage metering, a true end-to-end solution will provide all the tools your business needs to collect, transform, and measure usage data.

Zuora’s complete solution makes it easy to:


  • Bring in usage from anywhere using pre built connectors, collect usage data from AWS, Snowflake, Kafka, or through streaming APIs

  • Scale across high volumes of usage – over 200,000 events per second

  • Track multiple metrics to uncover where your customers are getting the most value

  • Use a drag-and-drop metering designer to enrich, aggregate, deduplicate, map, and filter your usage data

  • Use your own code for any meter or extend any meter with custom logic
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Get real-time visibility, rating, and analytics

Surprises lead to terrible customer experiences. The nature of usage pricing means that customers might not realize how much they’re using.

The answer is transparency — customers need to stay apprised of their consumption patterns. And if you can do it right, it’s not only a better experience, but can be a key growth lever as well.

Real-time usage rating and visibility

Customers like to see what they’re paying for, what they’ve used, and what their usage patterns are. To do this, you’ll need real-time rating.

Zuora does just that, with the usage solution your business needs to:

  • Automatically process and rate usage data in near 
real-time

  • Alert your customers of overages, push notifications as they approach threshold limits, or when it’s time to top up their usage

  • Empower your Billing Ops team to get ahead of customer disputes

  • Accurately bill your customers every time with a fully traceable audit trail to track usage from the time an event is ingested until it surfaces on an invoice
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Price and bill for any usage model

Adding a new product? Or changing your pricing to a usage model? It’s a big move, and competitors will catch up if you move too slow.


Leading SaaS companies use Zuora to move fast and quickly add usage to the pricing mix to drive total monetization.

Out-of-the-box support for multiple models

Zuora Billing makes it easy to get started with usage right away:

  • Choose from over 50 built-in pricing models, such pay-as-you-go, minimum commitment, or pre-paid with drawdown

  • Flexible pricing tools and an intuitive interface make it fast and simple to fine tune your pricing and packaging strategies

  • Apply different pricing plans to the same usage data, and compare which works best for your business

  • Automatically update pricing across multiple systems (in-app, ecommerce, CPQ)
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Maximize your usage revenue

Trends around monetizing generative AI and reducing adoption barriers have many companies turning to usage pricing models to drive growth. But to help ensure the successful company-wide roll out of a new usage-based pricing model, revenue accounting teams must be equipped with the right tools for success.

Continuously recognize usage revenue

Zuora Revenue makes it simple to:

  • Quickly identify any discrepancies with automated reports

  • Spend less time comparing numbers across spreadsheets and multiple systems

  • Gain near real-time insights into your current revenue position and let finance teams focus on closing the books faster

  • Keep new usage-based offers compliant with your revenue rules

  • Make data-driven decisions by comparing revenue actuals and forecasted revenue against each other
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Take the next steps

Usage-based pricing models will continue to be a pivotal tool for companies across industries in the years to come. This model offers a scalable, transparent, and cost-effective approach that benefits both providers and users, aligning with the dynamic nature of modern business practices.

As you navigate the complexities of usage, embracing a Total Monetization strategy and implementing the right solutions will help your business foster innovation, maximize growth, and nurture customer relationships.

Accurately capture usage

Give your product teams the flexibility to meter whatever they want, without spending engineering cycles building, and re-building code for metering usage or getting pulled into every customer dispute.

Move fast with usage pricing

Quickly launch and scale usage-based pricing across your product portfolio. Learn why leading SaaS companies use Zuora to move fast and quickly add usage to the pricing mix to drive total monetization.

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Pros and cons of usage-based pricing