Token-based pricing: charge users for actual AI consumption

The problem

Pricing AI features is awkward. Users do not all consume the same amount; a power user costs you 10x what a casual user does. Flat-rate pricing either subsidises power users from casuals (margin pain) or undercuts you on heavy enterprise accounts (revenue pain).

Token-based pricing - bill what users actually consume - solves this, but introduces new questions: do you sell pre-paid credits, post-bill via invoices, or both? What's the right token-to-dollar margin? How do you communicate the price to users?

And underneath all of that: you need a real-time per-user token counter that holds under concurrency, a way to refund unused reservations, and a way to surface "you have X tokens left" in the UI.

The solution

Use unit "tokens" or "cents" on a limit group. Reserve an upper bound, call the AI provider, commit, refund the unused difference. Surface the user's remaining balance via vevee.usage(userId).

For pre-paid credits: assign a high custom limit when the user buys credits. For post-paid: don't enforce a hard cap; just track usage and reconcile at month-end via your billing system.

For hybrid: let users buy credit packs that supplement a baseline plan. AIPricingLab handles the math; you handle the checkout.

Example

Pre-paid: user buys 100k tokens, you set their custom limit to 100k, every call deducts. Real-time balance available in the SDK.

import { createClient } from "@vevee/sdk";

const vevee = createClient({ apiKey: process.env.VEVEE_KEY! });

// On credit purchase:
export async function onCreditsPurchased(userId: string, addTokens: number) {
  // Read current quota
  const usage = await vevee.usage(userId);
  const tokensGroup = usage.counters.find(c => c.label === "Tokens")!;
  const newQuota = tokensGroup.quota + addTokens;

  await vevee.upsertSubscription({
    userId,
    planId: "plan_paygo",
    customLimits: { tokens: { quota: newQuota } },
  });
}

// In the UI (browser):
import { createClient as createPkClient } from "@vevee/sdk";
const vevee = createPkClient({ apiKey: PK_LIVE_KEY });

export async function getRemainingTokens(userId: string) {
  const u = await vevee.usage(userId);
  const tokens = u.counters.find(c => c.label === "Tokens");
  return tokens?.remaining ?? 0;
}

Frequently asked questions

Other use cases