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Usage-Based Pricing11 min readFebruary 12, 2027

Credit-Based Pay-Per-Use Pricing: How to Implement It and When It Works

Fixed monthly fees can hurt your margins when users consume expensive LLM tokens. Learn how credit-based billing guarantees profitability.

1. Database Credit Balance Ledger

Deduct tokens atomically inside database transactions with auto-prompt top-ups when balance drops below 20%.

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