Best usage-based billing platforms in 2026
Usage-based billing platforms compared for US and UK teams — Stripe Billing, Fynex, Orb, Metronome, Chargebee, m3ter, Lago and Paddle, by job and price.
Usage-based billing — charging each customer for what they consumed — has become the default for SaaS and AI products, and 2026 is the year its vendors stopped being independent. Stripe completed its acquisition of Metronome in January, Adyen acquired Orb, and Salesforce agreed to buy m3ter. If you are choosing a usage-based billing platform now, the first question is no longer which one has the best meter. It is which system you want your pricing, your invoices and your money to live in.
This roundup is organised by job, for US and UK teams.
What a usage-based billing platform has to do
- Meter — ingest usage events, drop duplicates, place late events in the right period, and hold refused events somewhere visible.
- Rate — price the aggregate: per unit, graduated, volume, tiered, package, percentage or per seat, with included units, minimum commitments and caps.
- Invoice — issue a document the customer can check line by line, with the right tax fields for the market: taxable flags per line in the US, the VAT total in sterling in the UK.
- Collect and reconcile — get paid, and match the payment to the invoice.
Most platforms do two or three of the four. The gaps between them are where revenue leaks: usage models are estimated to leak 4–9% of revenue, and a 2026 m3ter/PwC survey of 350 UK software executives found 44% struggle to capture usage data and 87% run billing that isn’t integrated with the general ledger.
The platforms, compared
| Platform | Built for | Metering | Invoicing & collection | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe Billing (+ Metronome) | Companies already on Stripe Payments | Yes | Yes, on Stripe | 0.7% of billing volume + processing |
| Fynex | Billing, collection, payouts and reconciliation on one record | Yes | Yes, processor-neutral; UK/US/EU invoices | No billing-volume fee; cards from 1.4% + $0.20 per authorization, payouts 0.5% |
| Orb (Adyen) | High-volume AI and infrastructure | Yes | Invoicing; payments via your processor | Custom |
| Metronome (Stripe) | Large AI companies | Yes | Invoicing; Stripe-native | Custom; free starter |
| Chargebee | Subscription-first SaaS | Usage add-on | Yes, via your gateway | $0 + 0.80%, or $99/mo + 0.65% |
| m3ter (Salesforce) | Enterprise usage pricing into CRM/ERP | Yes | Feeds your billing/ERP | Custom |
| Lago | Teams that self-host | Yes | Invoicing; payments via your PSP | Open source; premium custom |
| Paddle | Software sold as merchant of record | Limited | Yes, Paddle is the seller | 5% + 50c |
Processing fees — the percentage a card processor charges to accept a payment — are separate from every price in this table.
The default — Stripe Billing
Stripe Billing is where most teams start, because their payments are already on Stripe. It covers subscriptions, invoices, usage-based prices and Smart Retries, and the Metronome acquisition brings a high-volume metering engine in-house. The trade is price and coupling: 0.7% of billing volume on top of processing, Stripe Tax at a further 0.5%, and invoices tied to Stripe Payments. Hybrid plans that combine a subscription, usage and prepaid credits are workable but take engineering.
Billing and the money on one record — Fynex
Fynex is an agentic finance platform whose billing engine meters usage, rates it on seven pricing schemes with included units, minimums and caps, runs subscriptions and hybrid contracts, and keeps prepaid credits on an append-only ledger — then issues the invoice, collects it on a payment link and matches the payment back. What no billing-only tool does is continue past the invoice: one incoming payment can be split to several parties, your margin separates on receipt, payouts go out, and the invoice traces to every payout it funded. Invoices come from one schema for the UK (VAT fields, reverse charge, simplified invoices), the US (taxable flags per line, exempt buyers) and the EU. It is processor-neutral: it runs beside the card processor you keep, and moves the money after it — collections, split payouts and settlement. Pricing is 1.4% per payment on US-issued cards plus $0.20 per authorization, and 0.5% per payout, with no fee on billing volume. Product page: Usage-Based Billing; developer reference: the Billing API, with a sandbox and a test clock.
High-volume metering — Orb and Metronome
Orb and Metronome grew up metering raw events for AI and infrastructure companies at very high volume; Orb counts OpenAI and Vercel among its customers. Both price per contract. Both are now inside a payment company: Metronome in Stripe, Orb in Adyen (which says it will keep supporting other processors). You still need a processor, a tax engine and a payout provider around them.
Subscription-first SaaS — Chargebee (and Recurly)
Chargebee is the mature choice for subscription SaaS from SMB to mid-market: plans, trials, dunning, revenue recognition add-ons and a wide range of payment gateways. Usage-based pricing is supported, but the product’s centre of gravity is the subscription. Recurly plays the same role for consumer subscriptions. Both hand payment to your gateway and have no payouts.
Enterprise pricing into the CRM — m3ter
m3ter, based in London, rates complex enterprise usage pricing and pushes the result into CRM and ERP systems. Salesforce agreed to acquire it in June 2026 for Agentforce Revenue Management. It is a pricing and rating engine rather than an invoicing and collection system.
Open source — Lago
Lago is open source (AGPLv3) and can be self-hosted, with metering, invoicing and prepaid wallets. It suits engineering-heavy teams that want to own the billing stack; you still run it, and still need a payment provider and payouts.
Merchant of record — Paddle
Paddle, also London-based, sells your software as the merchant of record, so it collects and remits sales tax and VAT for you. The price is 5% + 50c per transaction with no ceiling, and it fits self-serve software better than B2B contracts with usage and commitments.
How to choose
- Already all-in on Stripe, simple usage: Stripe Billing.
- Want the invoice, the payment, payouts and reconciliation in one system, US or UK: Fynex.
- Billions of events, dedicated billing engineers: Orb or Metronome.
- Subscription-first SaaS adding a usage line: Chargebee.
- Enterprise pricing feeding Salesforce: m3ter.
- Want to self-host: Lago.
- Want someone else to be the seller of record for tax: Paddle.
For the terms used above, see usage-based billing, graduated vs volume pricing, prepaid credits and minimum commitment.