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Telemetry
For SaaS teams metering billable product usage

Usage-based billing analytics

Record billable usage with events that won't count retries twice. Track quotas and overages, then reconcile totals with your billing provider.

Reviewed by the Telemetry product team on . We checked the event fields, suggested queries, and data to exclude. Who reviews this page

Connect billing usageCopy the prompt
Why this works
  • Separate logical billable units from raw event volume.
  • Detect quota thresholds and overages before invoice finalization.
  • Reconcile meter totals with the billing provider and account plan.
How to test this use case

Measure Usage-based billing analytics and check the results

To measure usage-based billing analytics, choose one workflow and its owner. Define the events, test them with known inputs, and write a query that answers a specific question.

  1. 1

    Choose when to log

    Define one billable unit and exactly when your application records it.

  2. 2

    Capture the outcome

    Begin with usage_meter_recorded, usage_adjustment_recorded, quota_threshold_reached and document the grain of each event.

  3. 3

    Check the stored rows

    Review adjustments and plan changes before invoices become final.

  4. 4

    Make the decision

    Which accounts are approaching or exceeding included usage?

Related use cases

Check which events this guide covers

  • Use this page for metered usage, quota consumption, entitlements, invoice inputs, and billing reconciliation.
  • Use SaaS revenue analytics for subscription MRR movement, gross revenue retention, and net revenue retention.
  • Keep both models separate from product activation until account identity and reporting windows have been reconciled.

Agent prompt

Paste this into your coding agent

Replace YOUR_API_KEY after signup, then ask the agent to run the product flow and verify the first events.

agent prompt

Usage-based billing analytics setup prompt

text
Instrument usage-based billing with Telemetry.

Use /skill.md and this Telemetry API key: YOUR_API_KEY

Log one usage_meter_recorded event at the final billable boundary with meter_event_id, account_id, plan, feature, unit_name, billable_units, included_units, billing_period, and status. Use an idempotency key that survives retries.

Also log append-only usage adjustments, quota-threshold notifications, exports, and reconciliation outcomes. Create dashboards for monthly quota burn, usage by feature and plan, overages, and provider reconciliation differences.

Do not log payment details, invoice documents, credentials, or raw customer content. Do not use request count as billable quantity unless the commercial contract defines it that way.

Setup steps

  1. 1Define one billable unit and exactly when your application records it.
  2. 2Emit an idempotent meter event with account, plan, quantity, and unit.
  3. 3Compare monthly usage with the included quota and provider aggregate.
  4. 4Review adjustments and plan changes before invoices become final.

Events to capture

usage_meter_recordedusage_adjustment_recordedquota_threshold_reachedusage_export_completedinvoice_meter_reconciled

Questions you can answer

  • Which accounts are approaching or exceeding included usage?
  • Do internal meter totals match the billing provider?
  • Which features and plans create the most billable units?

Example event schemas

Event schemas for this workflow

Check what each event records, when to send it, and which field types it needs. Review the example payload and privacy checklist before using it in production.

Revenue operations9 fields

invoice_payment_completed

One terminal payment attempt.

View schema
Revenue lifecycle10 fields

subscription_changed

One committed recurring-revenue movement per account, subscription, and effective change.

View schema
Usage billing10 fields

usage_meter_recorded

One accepted usage increment per idempotency key and meter.

View schema

Use these queries in Telemetry

Learn about Dashboards

Save a product or revenue query to a dashboard your team can check.

Explore DashboardsRead customer stories

Related SQL recipes

More SQL recipes

Run the query using this workflow's event fields and check the example result. Save the result to a dashboard or set up an alert.

Browse all recipes
Revenue and billingBeginner

Calculate usage quota burn by account

Which accounts are consuming their included usage fastest this month?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Calculate monthly recurring revenue movement

What caused recurring revenue to grow or shrink each month?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Measure payment-failure recovery

Which payment failures recover, and how much revenue remains at risk?

Open recipe
Revenue and billingIntermediate

Calculate net and gross revenue retention

How much starting recurring revenue was retained before and after expansion?

Open recipe
Recipe collectionsRevenue and billing SQL

Customer evidence

Related customer stories

"Telemetry makes it super easy to track, analyze, and visualize what's going on in my business. It's the perfect mix of simple and powerful."

Namu Kang, Browserflow

Read the customer story

Next step

Create the API key your agent will use

The free plan is enough to run the prompt, send test events, and review the first dashboard.

Prompt packConnect real telemetry

Related pages

SaaS revenue analytics with SQL

Track subscription revenue changes alongside invoices, entitlements, and product events. Reconcile the totals with your billing provider before reporting MRR.

Open page