What is Schematic?
Schematic is a usage-based billing engine for AI and software companies. It handles the billing work that general-purpose tools struggle with: metered AI and token consumption, credit balances that several features draw down at different rates, real-time usage enforcement, and the negotiated, sales-led deals that break self-serve billing tools.
Usage-based pricing is where most teams arrive, and seat-based, hybrid, and flat-rate plans are supported the same way. You define plans, prices, limits, and credit bundles in one catalog, and Schematic meters consumption, enforces entitlements in real time, and bills for what customers actually use. Teams run it from their first paid customer through their largest enterprise contract.
Why teams use Schematic
Usage-based pricing tends to stall in procurement because buyers do not trust it. They fear runaway bills, and they fear being throttled without warning. Schematic gives your customers visibility into what they have consumed, forecasts of where they will land, self-service controls, and configurable spending limits, so both sides can sign knowing usage will stay inside budget. That takes friction out of procurement and shortens the sales cycle.
For GTM teams: Launch plans, change prices and limits, manage trials, and grant customer exceptions, all without engineering tickets. If you can imagine a pricing change, you can ship it yourself.
For Engineering teams: Stop building billing infrastructure. No usage metering system to run, no billing state to reconcile across systems, no feature flag sprawl for plan logic, no manual database overrides when Sales needs an exception.
How Schematic works with Stripe
Schematic runs the billing engine. Stripe runs the payment rails.
Your catalog lives in Schematic: plans, add ons, prices, usage-based billing models, credit bundles, and per-company overrides. Schematic meters consumption, enforces entitlements as customers use your product, and drives the subscription lifecycle, then keeps Stripe in step through a native two-way sync so invoicing and payments settle where your finance team already works.
What this means in practice:
- Pricing and packaging live in Schematic - Plans, limits, usage-based billing models, credit bundles, and customer overrides
- Stripe processes payments - Invoices, payment methods, retries, receipts, and tax
- Two-way sync - Changes on either side land on the other, with no webhook handlers to maintain and no billing state to reconcile
- Clean separation - GTM can change packaging and pricing in Schematic without touching Stripe configuration
This lets you run sophisticated pricing models (usage-based, credit-based, hybrid, seat-based, feature-gated) without building metering, enforcement, and reconciliation yourself, and without coupling pricing logic into your application code.
Learn more about Schematic’s Stripe Integration.
What you can do with Schematic
Bill for usage and credits
Turn metered consumption into accurate invoices with pay-as-you-go, fixed fee with overage, volume, or graduated pricing. Or sell a prepaid credit balance that burns down as customers use features, with the ledger and the invoice always agreeing.
Enforce entitlements in real time
Control which customers access which features based on their plan, usage, or custom rules, without touching application code. Update limits, bundle features, or create custom configurations from the Schematic dashboard.
Track usage with Metering
Track customer usage for billing, enforcing limits, or telemetry. Usage events can be attributed to companies, users, or features, forming the basis for usage-based pricing and customer insights.
Embed UI Components
Add pre-built components for checkout, upgrade/downgrade flows, customer portals, pricing tables, and usage meters. Give customers self-service control while maintaining consistent branding
Manage the entire customer lifecycle
Get a 360-degree view combining account data, usage patterns, and billing status. Power internal workflows for sales, support, and account management with complete customer context.
Handle exceptions gracefully
Grant temporary access, apply credits, create custom plans, or override limits for individual customers, all through the dashboard or API, no code changes required.
Core concepts
Plans and Add Ons (Catalog)
Define your pricing structure with plans and add ons. Each includes entitlements (features, limits, usage allowances) and pricing. Plans map to Stripe subscriptions automatically.
Company Profiles
A centralized record aggregating company information, subscription details, and usage data. Profiles are key-based (preventing duplicates) and can reference multiple identifiers across systems.
Feature Flags
Control access to features based on company context, subscription status, or custom attributes. Flags reference entitlements from Plans to enforce access rules automatically.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions link to Company Profiles automatically and stay in sync with Stripe. Companies can have membership in multiple Plans or add ons simultaneously, with the most permissive entitlements applying.
Metering
Track usage events for monetization or enforcement. Events can be attributed to companies, users, or features, supporting flexible usage-based models or packaged limits.
Getting started
Ready to move your pricing and packaging into Schematic? Check out our Quick Start Guide or book a demo to see Schematic in action.