MeterPulse
Drop-in usage metering SDK that goes from API call to accurate invoice in minutes - stop building billing infrastructure and ship your product
The Problem
B2B SaaS companies shifting to usage-based pricing (AI API calls, compute hours, storage GB, data processing) waste 3-6 months and $150K-300K in engineering time building metering infrastructure from scratch. They need to track billions of events, aggregate usage correctly across dimensions (customer, product, region), handle edge cases (refunds, credits, prorations), prevent double-billing, and generate accurate invoices. Existing solutions like Stripe Billing are too complex or don't handle high-volume metering well.
The Solution
Lightweight SDK that ingests usage events with one line of code (meterPulse.track('api_call', {customer_id, tokens: 1500})), aggregates usage in real-time across any dimension, applies flexible pricing rules (tiered, volume, per-unit), automatically calculates bills, syncs with Stripe for invoicing, and provides customer-facing usage dashboards. Handles 100M+ events/day with sub-second latency. Companies go from idea to usage-based billing in 1 day instead of 6 months.
MVP Features
Multi-language SDK for event ingestion (Python, Node.js, JavaScript, Go initially)
REST API for event submission with batching support
Real-time usage aggregation by customer, time period, and custom dimensions
Flexible pricing model builder (per-unit, tiered, volume, graduated, package)
Usage dashboard showing current period consumption per customer
Automatic invoice generation at billing cycle end
Stripe Billing integration for payment collection
Customer-facing usage portal (embeddable widget showing their consumption)
Alert system for approaching usage limits
Idempotency handling to prevent duplicate event processing
Historical usage data retention and querying
CSV/JSON export for usage data and invoices
Webhook notifications for usage thresholds and billing events
Credit and refund management
Usage analytics dashboard with trends and forecasting
Multi-currency support for global pricing
Monetization
Hybrid pricing: $99/month base + $0.001 per metered event (1M events = $1,000 additional), capped at $999/month for high-volume customers. Alternative: 0.5% of revenue processed through platform (competitive with Stripe's model). Target 50 customers averaging $400/month = $240K ARR Year 1, scaling rapidly as customer volumes grow. Enterprise tier at $2,500+/month for dedicated support, SLA, and on-premise deployment.