Monetize your product using recurring credits

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Overview

This guide explains how to monetize your product using credit-based pricing, similar to Clay, Lusha, Apollo.io, and Webflow. Credit-based pricing lets you sell prepaid usage that renews on a monthly or annual basis, while keeping upgrades and usage tracking simple. You’ll learn how to model recurring credits, configure plans, grant credits, and track consumption using Stigg.

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Use case

Credit-based pricing is ideal for products where usage varies over time and can be quantified, such as API calls, enrichments, automations, or data lookups. Credits act as a prepaid balance that customers consume as they use metered features, giving flexibility without introducing complex billing logic.

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Example pricing structure

This guide uses the following example pricing.

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Annual plans (credits granted upfront)

Credits are granted once at the beginning of the billing year. Free
$0 / year
All credits granted upfront Starter
$150 / month (billed yearly)

• 24,000 credits / year or
• 36,000 credits / year

Pro
$800 / month (billed yearly)

• 600,000 credits / year or
• 840,000 credits / year or
• 1,200,000 credits / year

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Monthly plans (credits granted monthly)

Credits are granted at the start of each monthly billing period. Starter
$149 / month

• 2,000 credits / month or
• 3,000 credits / month

Pro
$800 / month

• 50,000 credits / month or
• 70,000 credits / month or
• 100,000 credits / month

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Step 1: Create a product

The product represents the main commercial offering that will contain all your credit-based plans.

1. Go to Product catalog → Products.
2. Click + New product.
3. Select Single active subscription.
4. Give the product a name.
5. Click Create.

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Step 2: Create meter-based features

Credits are consumed by metered features. Each metered feature represents a unit of usage in your product.

1. Go to Product catalog → Features.
2. Click + New feature.
3. Configure the feature:
   • Name – Display name shown in the UI
   • Description (optional) – What the feature enables
   • ID – Auto-generated by Stigg (can be overridden)
   • Feature type – Select Meter
   • Meter type – Select Calculated usage
   • Unit names – For example, request / requests
4. (Optional) Enable Feature is sold in different units if you report usage in one unit (for example, bytes) but want to present it in another (for example, GB).

This feature will later be linked to credits.

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Step 3: Create credit-based plans

Plans define how many credits customers receive and how often they are billed.

1. Go to Product catalog → Plans.
2. Click + New plan.
3. Select the product you created.
4. Give the plan a name (for example, Pro – Monthly).
5. Click Create.

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Step 4: Configure pricing

This step defines how the plan is billed and how credits are granted.

1. Go to Product catalog → Plans.
2. Select the plan you created earlier.
3. In the Price section, click + Set.
4. Select Paid.
5. Choose Recurring as the billing model.
6. Select the billing period:
   • Monthly
   • Yearly
7. Click Continue.

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Step 5: Configure credits

Credits determine how much usage the customer receives per billing period. Under Charges:

1. Select Credits.
2. In Credit type, select Credits (Credits).
3. Choose a pricing model (for example, Stairstep).
4. Define the credit tiers:
   • Tier 1: 50,000 credits / month
   • Tier 2: 70,000 credits / month
   • Tier 3: 100,000 credits / month
5. Set the total price for each tier.

For annual plans, repeat the same setup using yearly credit quantities.

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Step 6: Configure grant cadence

Grant cadence controls when credits are issued to the customer.

• For monthly plans, credits are granted automatically each billing period.
• For annual plans, set Grant cadence to At the beginning of the billing period.

Click Add to save the credit charge.

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Step 7: Publish the plan

Once pricing and credits are fully configured, publish the plan so it can be assigned to customers.

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Step 8: Subscribe a Customer

This step assigns the plan and credit tier to a specific customer.

1. Go to Customers → Customer accounts.
2. Select the customer.
3. In the Subscriptions section, click + Add.
4. Select the product.
5. Select the plan.
6. In Plan configuration, choose the credit tier (for example, 50k / 70k / 100k).
7. Add a billing method.
8. Click Create.

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Step 9: View Credit Consumption

You can monitor how customers consume credits over time.

1. Go to Customers → Customer accounts.
2. Select the customer.
3. Open the Credits tab.

This view shows granted credits, consumed credits, and remaining balance.

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Step 10: Upgrade or downgrade a customer

Upgrades and downgrades are handled by assigning a new plan.

1. Create a new plan if required.
2. Go to Customers → Customer accounts.
3. Select the customer.
4. Under Subscriptions, click + Add.
5. Select the product and the new plan.
6. Choose the desired credit tier.
7. Add or confirm billing.
8. Click Create.