Examples of plans with included credits

Overview

Credit benefits let you bundle prepaid usage with pricing that is not itself a prepaid credit purchase. This is useful when you want a plan or fee to include an allowance, such as:

• A monthly subscription that includes API credits
• A one-time onboarding package that includes setup usage
• A seat-based plan where each seat gets its own monthly allowance

The examples below focus on how these benefits behave from the customer’s point of view.

One-time fee with included credits

Use this pattern when you charge a one-time amount and want that purchase to include a prepaid balance.

Example:

• One-time onboarding fee: $2,000
• Included benefit: 5,000 Setup Credits

Customer experience:

• The customer pays once
• Paid grants a 5,000 credit allocation
• Usage spends down that balance until it reaches zero

This is useful for implementation packages, onboarding bundles, or migration services that come with a fixed amount of included work.

Recurring platform fee with included credits

Use this pattern when a recurring subscription should include a fresh allowance each billing period.

Example:

• Platform fee: $99/month
• Included benefit: 1,000 API Credits per month

Customer experience:

• The customer is billed monthly for the plan
• At the start of each billing period, Paid grants a new 1,000 credit allocation
• Any rollover rules are applied based on your configuration

This is the most common model for subscription plans with included usage.

Seat-based pricing with organization-level credits

Use this pattern when you sell seats, but want the included credits to be shared across the whole customer account.

Example:

• Seat price: $40 per seat per month
• Included benefit: 500 Messages per seat
• Recipient: organization

If the customer has 10 seats:

• The customer pays for 10 seats
• Paid grants 5,000 shared message credits
• Any user in the account can draw from the same pool

This works well when the customer cares about the total account allowance more than the per-user split.

Seat-based pricing with seat-level credits

Use this pattern when each seat should receive its own allowance rather than sharing one pool.

Example:

• Seat price: $40 per seat per month
• Included benefit: 500 Messages per seat
• Recipient: seat

Customer experience:

• Each seat receives its own credit allocation
• Heavy usage by one seat does not automatically consume another seat’s allowance
• The balance response can distinguish these seat-scoped allowances from organization-wide balances

This works well when usage limits should map directly to licensed users.

One product, multiple credit benefits

You can include more than one credit benefit on the same product when the customer receives different usage allowances together.

Example:

• Platform fee: $499/month
• Included benefits:
  • 10,000 API Credits
  • 2,000 Workflow Credits

Customer experience:

• The customer receives separate balances for each credit currency
• Usage in one currency does not reduce the balance of the other

This is useful when your product has more than one metered resource and customers need separate visibility for each one.

Allocation cadence examples

Credit benefits can be allocated on different cadences inside a billing term.

Upfront allocation

Example:

• Annual plan: $12,000/year
• Included benefit: 120,000 API Credits
• Allocation cadence: upfront

Customer experience:

• The full 120,000 credits are granted at the start of the annual term

Monthly allocation inside a longer term

Example:

• Annual plan: $12,000/year
• Included benefit: 120,000 API Credits
• Allocation cadence: monthly

Customer experience:

• Credits are granted in monthly portions instead of all at once
• A typical outcome would be 10,000 credits becoming available each month during the annual term

This is useful when you want annual contract pricing but do not want the full annual allowance usable on day one.

Grant timing examples

Credit benefits can also become available at different times.

On order activation

Use this when credits should be usable as soon as the order or billing period starts.

On payment

Use this when credits should remain pending until the related invoice is paid.

This is useful when you want credit access to follow payment collection more strictly.