> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://narev.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Usage-based billing

> Learn how usage-based billing meters token and compute consumption per customer so AI products keep healthy margins as inference costs scale linearly.

Usage-based (or token-based billing) billing maps customer charges to resource consumption. AI inference costs scale linearly. Flat seat licenses fail in this context. Metering ensures margin protection.

## Metering lifecycle

<Steps>
  <Step title="Response generation">
    Model generates response and sends usage metrics back to the caller.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Normalization">
    Narev normalizes usage metrics into a dollar value.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Report to billing provider">
    Narev reports the dollar value to the billing provider (for example, Stripe, Polar, Lago, etc.)
  </Step>

  <Step title="Aggregation and chargeback">
    Billing provider aggregates usage and charges the user.
  </Step>
</Steps>