Monetization

Monetization charges developers for the plans they subscribe to in your API Portal. You connect a Stripe account once, then set a price on each plan you want to bill for. Free plans and contract plans need no price at all.

How does monetization work in Apiable?

You connect Stripe under Integrations, Payment Providers, then open a plan's Monetization tab and choose how the plan charges. Apiable creates the matching product and price on your Stripe account, and Stripe bills each subscriber.

Monetization has two halves. You set the payment connection once for the portal, and you set the price per plan:

1. Connect Stripe. Link your Stripe account through Stripe Connect so Apiable can create prices and start checkouts on it.
2. Price each plan. On the plan's Monetization tab, choose a Revenue Model, then a Pricing Model, and fill in the amounts or tiers.
3. Bill subscribers. A developer who subscribes checks out through Stripe. Metered prices report usage to Stripe, which bills it at the end of the cycle.

Which payment providers does Apiable support?

Stripe, and only Stripe. Apiable resolves your portal's payment configuration to its Stripe billing adapter, and there is no second provider to connect today. Charges run on your own connected Stripe account.

Which revenue models can charge a developer?

The Revenue Model field offers No Monetization / Free, Contract and Recurring. Only Recurring charges through Stripe. Choosing it reveals a Pricing Model field with five options, four of which create a Stripe price.

No Monetization / Free takes no payment. Contract takes no payment through Apiable either: it shows a button whose text and link you set in CTA Override Text and CTA URL, so you can send developers to a sales conversation or your own checkout.

The Billing cycle field, Monthly or Yearly, applies to every model that creates a Stripe price.

What does Bill Processing decide?

For metered and prepaid plans, Bill Processing decides where usage comes from. Apiable either counts it from your gateway's logs, or you report it yourself with the API. The options depend on the pricing model.

When you pick one of the three Apiable options, the tab reminds you: "Apiable is selected: Please ensure your API Gateway Logs are Connected." API calls and tokens are counted from those logs. See Usage-based billing for the prerequisites and the matching criteria.

How does usage-based billing work?

Volume, graduated and flat-fee plus overage prices are metered through a Stripe meter. Apiable reports each subscriber's usage to it, either counted from your gateway logs or sent by you, and Stripe bills the metered total when the billing cycle closes.

Automatic counting also needs the Usage Events add-on and at least one API on the plan. See Usage-based billing for the full list, or Report usage with the API to send usage yourself. For the why behind usage-based pricing, see API monetization.

How do prepaid credits work?

The developer's team holds a prepaid credit balance in each currency. Each call on a prepaid plan draws the balance down at the plan's per-call price. The team tops up by invoice, or you grant credit directly.

Prepaid plans do not run a Stripe subscription. Developers top up from their team's page in the API Portal, which raises an invoice through Stripe. In the dashboard, a team's Credits tab, under Consumers, Teams, offers two actions: Grant credits for an amount, or Create Invoice for an amount that the team pays through Stripe.

The Credit-based - Prepaid - Burn-down option is available on Apiable plans that include it. It also needs the plan's security level set to Level 1 - Intermediate - Server to Server - OAuth 2.0: Client Credentials with Client Secret Basic. With Apiable - Credits, the Apiable authorizer on your gateway checks and draws credit through your portal as it authorizes calls, which is the one case where Apiable takes part in a live request. See The no-proxy model.

Where do I price a plan?

You set pricing on a plan, not on the product. Open the plan, go to its Monetization tab, choose a revenue model and a pricing model, then fill in the amounts or tiers.

The tab also sets the billing cycle, a Lookup Key for each price, and how tax applies to the price. You cannot change the price while the plan has active or pending subscriptions. The plan then shows "This plan has active or pending subscriptions" with a Create button, which makes a new version of the plan where you can set the new price. See Plans for the rest of the plan.

Where to next