AI Product Billing

Who Is This For?

This guide is for developers building AI products, API services, or any usage-based business. Common examples:

Business Type	Examples
AI API Services	LLM API proxies, image generation, speech recognition
AI SaaS	AI writing assistants, AI code completion, AI translation
AI Agent Platforms	Automated workflows, data analysis agents
API Services	Payment processing, messaging, data queries

How Billing Works with Waffo Pancake

Waffo Pancake does not provide built-in usage metering, but you can model AI billing with two primary approaches: subscriptions and on-demand purchases. In many businesses, these two approaches work best together.

Approach 1: Subscriptions

Create subscription products at different tiers, each with a different token quota, request allowance, or task limit.

Prices below are examples only. Set them based on your actual business and costs.

Plan	Monthly	Token Quota	Best For
Starter	$9/month	100K tokens	Individual developers
Pro	$49/month	1M tokens	Small teams
Scale	$199/month	10M tokens	Enterprise

Best for:

recurring monthly or annual access
plans with included usage
upgrade paths that unlock higher quotas

Approach 2: On-Demand Purchases

Use one-time orders or dynamic pricing to charge based on additional usage, credits, or runtime-calculated amounts. Best for:

buying extra tokens or credits
charging for overage beyond the included plan
per-task, per-call, or quoted usage

Dynamic Pricing via Checkout Session

Pass dynamic pricing through priceSnapshot when creating a checkout session to charge based on actual usage.

const session = await client.checkout.createSession({
  storeId: "store_id",
  productId: "usage-product-id",
  productType: "onetime",
  currency: "USD", // replace with your currency
  priceSnapshot: {
    amount: calculatedAmount, // dynamically calculated based on usage
    taxIncluded: false,
    taxCategory: "saas",
  },
});

External Metering Tools

Use dedicated metering tools to track usage, combined with Waffo Pancake for billing.

Recommended Metering Tools

New API

API aggregation and management platform with multi-model key distribution, usage tracking, and quota control. Waffo Pancake partner.

Recommended Combination

Most AI products do not need to choose only one billing model. The most common pattern is to combine subscriptions with on-demand purchases.

Combined Pattern: Base Subscription + On-Demand Usage

This is the most common and easiest billing model for customers to understand. Setup:

Create tiered subscription products such as Starter / Pro / Scale
Include a fixed quota of tokens, requests, or tasks in each plan
Track actual usage with an external metering system
When a user exceeds the included quota, charge extra through a one-time order or priceSnapshot

Fits well for:

AI API services
AI SaaS
AI agent platforms

Dashboard workflow:

Monitor active plans in Subscriptions
Review extra purchases or overage charges in Payments
Track subscription revenue and on-demand revenue together in Analytics

Key Webhook Events

Event	Action
`subscription.activated`	Set initial token/request quota
`subscription.updated`	Adjust quota to match new plan
`subscription.canceled`	Revoke API access or downgrade to free tier
`subscription.past_due`	Reduce quota or throttle API calls
`order.completed`	Grant additional token allowance (overage purchase)

For API details, see the API Reference.

Testing

Create Test Products

Set up both subscription products and on-demand products in test mode.

Subscribe with Test Card

Use 4576 7500 0000 0110 to subscribe to each tier.

Simulate Usage

Test your usage tracking and quota enforcement logic.

Test On-Demand Billing

Verify the dynamic pricing and on-demand billing flow.

Launch Checklist

Subscription products created for each tier
On-demand or overage product created
Pricing and quotas clearly documented
Usage tracking/metering tool integrated
Quota enforcement working correctly
Upgrade/downgrade flows tested
On-demand billing flow verified
Products published to production

AI Integration

Business Models

Operations

Who Is This For?

How Billing Works with Waffo Pancake

Approach 1: Subscriptions

Approach 2: On-Demand Purchases

Dynamic Pricing via Checkout Session

External Metering Tools

Recommended Metering Tools

New API

Recommended Combination

Combined Pattern: Base Subscription + On-Demand Usage

Key Webhook Events

Testing

Launch Checklist

Next Steps

Run SaaS Subscriptions

Set Up Webhooks

​Who Is This For?

​How Billing Works with Waffo Pancake

​Approach 1: Subscriptions

​Approach 2: On-Demand Purchases

​Dynamic Pricing via Checkout Session

​External Metering Tools

​Recommended Metering Tools

New API

​Recommended Combination

​Combined Pattern: Base Subscription + On-Demand Usage

​Key Webhook Events

​Testing

​Launch Checklist

​Next Steps

Run SaaS Subscriptions

Set Up Webhooks

Who Is This For?

How Billing Works with Waffo Pancake

Approach 1: Subscriptions

Approach 2: On-Demand Purchases

Dynamic Pricing via Checkout Session

External Metering Tools

Recommended Metering Tools

Recommended Combination

Combined Pattern: Base Subscription + On-Demand Usage

Key Webhook Events

Testing

Launch Checklist

Next Steps