Graduated Pricing

Graduated pricing splits usage into tiers, and each tier is charged at its own rate. This means the price per unit decreases as usage increases — customers pay less per unit for higher volumes, but each range has its own rate.

Example
An API service charges:

First 1,000 requests: $0.01 each

Next 9,000 requests (1,001–10,000): $0.008 each

Everything above 10,000: $0.005 each

A customer who makes 15,000 requests pays: (1,000 × $0.01) + (9,000 × $0.008) + (5,000 × $0.005) = **$107**

Setting up

CLI
Dashboard

Use the tiers array on a plan item price. By default, tiers use graduated behavior:

autumn.config.ts

import { atmn, feature, plan } from "atmn";

export const apiCalls = feature({
  featureId: "api_calls",
  name: "API Calls",
  type: "metered",
  consumable: true,
});

export const pro = plan({
  planId: "pro",
  versionSlug: "v1",
  active: true,
  name: "Pro",
  price: { amount: 20, interval: "month" },
  items: [
    {
      featureId: apiCalls.featureId,
      reset: { interval: "month" },
      price: {
        tiers: [
          { to: 1000, amount: 0.01 },
          { to: 10000, amount: 0.008 },
          { to: "inf", amount: 0.005 },
        ],
        billingMethod: "usage_based",
        interval: "month",
      },
    },
  ],
});

export default atmn({ features: [apiCalls], plans: [pro] });

Preview with atmn push, then apply with atmn push --yes.

Navigate to Plans and create or edit a plan
Add a consumable feature
Under Price, select Tiered
The default tier behavior is Graduated
Add tiers with the upper limit (to) and rate (amount) for each range. Use inf for the final tier
Set the billing method to Usage-based and the billing interval
Save the plan

How graduated pricing works

At the end of the billing period, Autumn calculates the total charge by applying each tier’s rate to the usage that falls within that tier’s range:

Usage range	Rate	Charge
0 – 1,000	$0.01	1,000 × $0.01 = $10
1,001 – 10,000	$0.008	9,000 × $0.008 = $72
10,001+	$0.005	5,000 × $0.005 = $25
Total		$107

Each tier’s rate only applies to the usage within that tier’s range. This is in contrast to volume-based pricing, where a single rate is applied to the entire usage.

Tier configuration

Each tier has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`to`	number or `"inf"`	The upper boundary of this tier. Use `"inf"` for the final tier.
`amount`	number	Price per unit within this tier
`flat_amount`	number	Optional flat fee added when this tier is reached

Tiers must be in ascending order by to. The final tier should always use "inf" to capture all remaining usage.

Graduated vs volume-based

	Graduated	Volume-based
Rate applied	Each tier at its own rate	Entire usage at a single rate
Total charge	Sum of each tier’s charge	Total usage × matching tier rate
Best for	Rewarding growth with lower marginal rates	Simpler pricing with volume discounts

See Volume-Based Tiers for the alternative model.

Getting Started

Configure Pricing

Billing & Subscriptions

Customers

Additional Resources

Graduated Pricing

Setting up

How graduated pricing works

Tier configuration

Graduated vs volume-based

​Setting up

​How graduated pricing works

​Tier configuration

​Graduated vs volume-based

Setting up

How graduated pricing works

Tier configuration

Graduated vs volume-based