AI monetization

AI products often combine predictable subscriptions with variable consumption. Customers may pay for seats, token usage, model calls, generated images, agent runs, data processing, or prepaid credit packs. Hyperline helps you turn those signals into billable products without building a separate billing system for AI usage. Use this page as an entry point when you are designing how to price, package, and bill AI consumption.

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Common AI monetization use cases

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Choose a billing model

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Usage-based billing

Usage-based billing works well when customers should pay for exactly what they consume during a billing period. Hyperline receives usage events, converts them into billable metrics with aggregators, and applies the price configured in your product catalog. Use it for token volume, API calls, workflow runs, image generations, storage, compute time, or any metric that should appear on the next invoice. Start with:

• Getting started with usage-based billing
• Send usage data
• Aggregators
• Usage-based products

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Prepaid credits

Credits work well when customers should buy a package upfront and spend it flexibly across multiple AI actions. One credit balance can be consumed by several aggregators, each with its own weight. For example, one lightweight model call can consume 1 credit, a premium model call can consume 5 credits, and an image generation can consume 10 credits from the same balance. This lets customers understand a single balance while your pricing still reflects different underlying costs. Start with:

• Credits overview
• Credit products
• Set up credit-based billing for an AI platform

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Subscriptions with allowances and overages

Many AI products use a hybrid model: a recurring subscription gives access to the product and includes a usage allowance, while overages are billed separately. This is useful when customers want predictable pricing, but your costs still depend on consumption. Use this model when you want to package AI usage into tiers such as Starter, Scale, and Enterprise, while still charging for heavy usage beyond the included allowance. Start with:

• Configure usage-based billing
• Products and prices
• Manage subscriptions

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Wallets and customer balances

Wallets are useful when you want to manage a monetary balance for a customer. Credits are usually better for productized AI consumption units, while wallets are useful for prepaid cash balances, manual adjustments, or commercial credits that should offset future invoices. Start with:

• Wallet balance
• Customer portal
• Coupons and credits

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Suggested setup path

1. Define the unit you want to monetize: tokens, requests, agent runs, documents processed, generated assets, or another AI-specific metric.
2. Send usage events to Hyperline, or use a data connector if your usage data already lives in another system.
3. Create aggregators that transform raw events into the billable metrics you want to price.
4. Choose the commercial model: usage-based billing, prepaid credits, subscription allowances, wallet balance, or a mix of those models.
5. Add the products to subscriptions, quotes, or self-serve flows so customers can buy and renew them.
6. Use customer usage, credit balances, invoices, and the customer portal to make consumption visible to your team and your customers.

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Related documentation