Metered Billing

Owned by Hostbill Support
Last updated: Mar 20, 2024

Table of contents

Overview

Metered Billing is a type of usage-based billing, where the fee is based on resource usage over time. Metered billing can be enabled by modules that automatically support this feature and had a range of variables that can be measured. Alternatively, HostBill users may define their own variables for any product or service, regardless of the provisioning module used, and add resource usage values using API.

Billing schemes

There are multiple billing schemes available for Metered Billing, described below.

All examples were created using this pricing configuration:

Starting QTYEnding QTYUnit price
0100.00
10500.10
50∞0.20

Tiered scheme

Every unit charge is calculated with each measurement based on its own tier

Example


Logged usageChargeTotal UsageTotal ChargeComment
110101st pricing group
220301st pricing group
320501st pricing group
440901st pricing group
5111,1201,12nd pricing group
6202403,12nd pricing group
755119514,13rd pricing group
8252,512016,62nd pricing group
99012916,61st pricing group
101013016,61st pricing group

Overage tiers

In this scheme each expected measurement is low (i.e. hourly bandwidth).

Example


Logged usageChargeTotal UsageTotal ChargeComment
11010starting with 1st group
22030
32050
44090
5110,1200,1 (2nd group price) *  (11 - (1st group end qty))
6201401,1 (2nd group price) *  (20 - (1st group end qty))
7551952,1 (3rd group price) *  (55 - (2st group end qty))
82551207,1 (3rd group price) *  25
991,81298,9 (3rd group price) *  9
1010,21309,1 (3rd group price) *  1

Volume scheme

All units charge is calculated based on total count in period and related bracket

Example


Logged usageChargeTotal UsageTotal ChargeComment
11n/a10starting with 1st pricing group
22n/a30
32n/a50
44n/a90
511n/a201,0 total usage reached  2nd pricing group
620n/a403,0
755n/a9517,0
825n/a12022,0
99n/a12923,8
101n/a13024,0


If your first pricing group has no charge, volume scheme will not include values logged under it in total charges.

In above example, total charge is calculated without first 10 units of usage

Peak scheme

Only highest measurement is billed with charge based on related bracket

Example


Logged usageChargeTotal UsageTotal ChargeComment
11n/a10starting with 1st pricing group
22n/a20
32n/a20
44n/a40
511n/a111,1highest usage reached 2nd pricing group
620n/a202highest usage reached 2nd pricing group
755n/a5511highest usage reached  3rd pricing group
825n/a5511
99n/a5511
101n/a5511


Stair-step scheme

Total cost is calculated based on price bracket, charge is for entire bracket not certain units

Example


Logged usageChargeTotal UsageTotal ChargeComment
11010starting with 1st pricing group
22030
32050
440,0190
5110,02200,1 total usage reached  2nd pricing group
6200,03400,1
7550,08950,2 total usage  reached 3rd pricing group
8250,041200,2
990,011290,2
10101300,2


Adding own variables

To add a new variable, choose "Metered" pricing in Product Configuration and enter:

  • Name - name displayed for clients
  • Unit - units measured 
  • Variable - variable name
  • Don't accumulate - when this option is enabled, previous readouts within given billing cycle would not accumulate. This will cause only the last readout to be billed.
  • Reset each period - when enabled, HostBill will remove data from previous variable values for given account during invoice generation
  • Price brackets - you can add multiple price brackets, enter Starting quantity, Ending Quantity and Unit price.